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THE  UNIVERSITY 


OF  ILLINOIS 


LIBRARY  tV*  ?  *  •  !  •• 
From  the  collection  of 

Julius  Doerner,  Chicago 

Purchased,  1918. 

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FOOT-PRINTS 


— OF — 


VANISHED  RACES 


— IN   THE — 


MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY; 


BEING  AN  ACCOUNT  OF  SOME  OF  THE  MONUMENTS  AND  RELICS  OF 

PRE-HISTORIC  RACES  SCATTERED  OVER  ITS  SURFACE,  WITH 

SUGGESTIONS   AS   TO    THEIR   ORIGIN   AND    USES. 


By  A.  J.  CONANT,  A.  M., 

Member  of  the  St.  Louis  Academy  of  Science,  and  of  the  American  Association 
for  the  Advancement  of  Science. 


ST.  LOUIS: 
CHANCY  R.  BARNS. 

1879. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1879, 

Br  A.  J.  CONANT, 
In  the  office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress  at  Washington. 


PREFACE. 


The  first  organized  effort  for  the  study  and  preservation  of  the 
antiquities  of  this  continent  was  the  formation  of  The  American 
Antiquarian  Society,  which  was  incorporated  by  Act  of  the  Leg- 
islature of  Massachusetts  in  October,  1812.  A  goodly  number  of 
distinguished  scholars  of  that  State  were  immediately  enrolled  as 
members,  as  well  as  many  other  learned  men  residing  in  other 
States,  who  were  made  corresponding  members.  In  1821  this 
Society  published  its  first  volume  of  "  Transactions." 

Although  nearly  all  the  accounts  of  the  expeditions  of  the  earlier 
explorers  of  the  continent  of  North  America  contained  notes  of 
striking  memorials,  which  were  met  with  in  their  journeys,  such 
as  mounds,  embankments,  fortifications  and  the  like,  still,  all 
such  notices  were  too  meagre  and  superficial  to  give  them  any 
special  scientific  value. 

Through  the  labors  of  the  American  Antiquarian  Society,  the 
attention  of  the  scientific  world  was  first  called  to  the  countless, 
and  often  imposing  memorials  of  pre-historic  America,  and  their 
proper  study  began. 

More  than  three-score  years  have  now  passed  since  the  date 
of  the  organization  referred  to,  during  which  time  volume  after 
volume  has  appeared  upon  the  subject.  Accounts  of  special  sur- 
veys, by  private  individuals  and  State  geologists,  have  multiplied 
every  year.  Scientific  associations  all  over  the  land,  as  well  as  nu- 
merous Archaeological  Societies  formed  for  this  specific  purpose, 
have  given  the  subject  unremitting  and  serious  attention.  The 
Smithsonian  Institute  has  also  expended  large  sums  of  money  in 

409077 


iv  PREFACE. 

exploration  and  in  publishing  the  accounts  of  the  multiplied  dis- 
coveries of  observers  employed  by  that  noble  institution.  Nor 
has  the  interest  in  the  subject  been  confined  to  America.  Some 
of  the  wisest  archaeologists  of  Europe  have  written  learnedly 
upon  the  works  and  migrations  of  the  ancient  inhabitants  of 
both  continents  of  America. 

Notwithstanding  all  this  labor  and  study,  the  great  questions 
continually  repeated,  which  were  suggested  when  our  antiquities 
were  first  noticed,  still  remain  unanswered ;   namely :   Who  were 
the  authors  of  these  works  ?     What  was  their  origin,  and  what 
were  the  causes  of  their  disappearance  ?    Were  they  the  red  men 
found  in  possession  of  the  continent  at  the  time  of  its  discovery  ? 
I  am  not  aware  that  the  opinion  that  the  red  men  were  the  authors  of 
the  most  extensive  works,  though  maintained  by  some  scholars 
of  high  repute,  is  held  by  any  who  have  given  them  personal 
and  thorough  examination.     The  earlier  travellers  who  stumbled 
upon  them  in  the  wilderness,  or  on  the  prairie,  express  their  as- 
tonishment at  their  magnitude   and  the  skill  displayed  in  their 
erection.     Captain  Carver,  in  the  account  of  his  travels  in  the 
years  1766-'7-'8,  describes  what  he  was  convinced  was  a  mili- 
tary work,  which  he  accidentally  discovered  upon  the   bank  of 
Lake  Pepin.     This  was  long  before  it  was  known  that  America 
had  any  antiquities.     Concerning  it  he  says  that  "  its  form  was 
somewhat  circular,  and   its  flanks  reached  the  river.       Though 
much   defaced   by  time,   every  angle   was   distinguishable,    and 
appeared  as  regular  and  fashioned  with  as  much  military  skill 
as  if  planned    by  Vauban  himself."     Again:    "I   was    able   to 
draw  certain  conclusions  of  its  great  antiquity."     "  How  a  work 
of  this  kind  could  exist  in  a  country  that  has  hitherto  (according 
to  generally-received  opinion)  been  the  seat  of  war  to  untutored 
Indians  alone,  whose  whole  stock  of  military  knowledge  has  only, 
till   within   two   centuries,  amounted   to  drawing  the  bow,  and 


PREFACE. 


whose  only  breastwork,  even  at  present,  is  the  thicket,  I  know 
not." 

His  testimony  is  selected  from  that  of  a  multitude  of  early 
writers,  because  he  could  not  have  been  prejudiced  by  the  pre- 
conceived opinions  or  notions  of  others,  and  also  because  he  was 
a  man  of  military  training,  being  a  captain  in  the  British  army, 
whose  conclusions  would  not  be  mere  guess-work.  The  judgment 
of  Brackenridge,  Atwater,  William  Wirt  and  many  other  dis- 
tinguished men,  is  in  perfect  agreement  upon  this  point, 
namely:  that  they  could  not  have  been  built  by  the  Indians,  as 
we  know  them,  nor  any  people  in  like  condition. 

The  first  important  question  to  be  decided — if,  indeed,  it  can 
"be — is  the  origin  of  the  North  American  Indians.  Was  their 
original  home  in  Asia?  and  did  they,  as  many  believe,  make  their 
way  to  this  continent  across  Behring's  Straits,  or  the  Aleutian 
Islands?  In  the  solution  of  this  question,  the  student  of  Arch- 
aeology bespeaks  the  aid  of  the  Philologist. 

Archa3ology,  Geology  and  Paleontology  have  been  called 
three  sister  sciences.  Philology  must  be  added  to  the  sister- 
hood, at  least  as  far  as  American  pre-historic  times  are  con- 
cerned, as  it  may  be  that  the  lamp  of  this  younger  sister  may 
light  the  footsteps  of  the  elder  to  the  final  results  of  ethnological 
investigation.  Should  there  be  discovered  some  radical  affinity 
between  a  few  of  the  forty  stock  languages  of  the  red  men  of 
North  America  and  their  physically-related  brethren  of  North- 
western Asia,  the  question,  it  would  seem,  would  be  settled. 

No  one  who  has  not  previously  examined  the  antiquities  of 
the  vanished  races  who  once  dwelt  upon  this  continent,  can  have 
any  adequate  idea  of  their  magnitude  and  extent ;  and  he  who  has 
seen  them  as  they  lie  thickly  scattered  throughout  the  fertile 
valleys  of  the  Western  States,  is  surprised  at  the  evidence  they 


VI  PREFACE. 

present  of  a  prodigious  population  which  once  swarmed  in  this 
wide  domain. 

The  Cahokia  group  of  mounds  in  the  American  Bottom,  six 
miles  from  St.  Louis,  may  aid  in  illustrating  the  statement. 
There  are  in  this  group,  beside  smaller  ones,  at  least  a  dozen  in 
close  propinquity ;  any  one  of  which,  if  standing  alone,  would  be 
a  striking  feature  of  the  landscape.  Just  west  of  Monk's  Mound, 
the  largest  of  the  group,  is  one  which  is  perhaps  fifteen  to  twenty 
feet  in  height,  On  the  flat  surface  of  the  top  stands  a  good-sized 
farm-house,  with  necessary  out-buildings  and  conveniences,  and 
plenty  of  room  for  a  variety  of  fruit  trees,  and  an  ample  vegeta- 
ble garden.  This  is  not  the  only  one  so  occupied,  and  there  are 
near  this  one  several  others  much  larger  and  more  conspicuous  ; 
while  all  of  them  look  diminutive,  and  may  be  compared  to  ant- 
hills beside  that  King  of  Mounds  which  stands  near  the  northern 
center  of  the  group.  Directly  north  of  this  great  work  are  satis- 
factory evidences  of  a  large  artificial  lake,  the  dirt  taken  from 
which  was  presumably  used  in  building  the  mounds.  The  form 
and  size  of  the  lake  can  best  be  made  out  just  after  the  Cahokia 
creek,  which  flows  through  it,  has  been  swollen  by  heavy  rains. 

Having  his  home  in  the  center  of  the  great  valley  where  these 
works  abound,  and  looking  upon  some  of  them  almost  every  day 
of  his  life,  the  writer  has  been  impelled  to  note  the  facts  which 
came  under  his  own  observation,  and  to  venture,  concerning  them, 
a  few  conclusions.  The  conclusions  may  be  valueless ;  but  if  he 
who  causes  two  blades  of  grass  to  grow  where  but  one  grew 
before,  is  a  benefactor,  truly,  he  who  contributes  a  new  fact  to 
the  sum  of  human  knowledge,  should  be  considered  in  the  same 
li<-ht:  for  the  after  times  alone  can  reveal  the  value  of  the  con- 
tribution,  and  that  which  is  least  in  all  earthly  kingdoms  some- 
times becomes  the  greatest.  In  the  desire  to  do  what  he  could 
to  advance  the  study  of  a  science  so  deeply  interesting  to  himself, 


PREFACE.  vii 


the  writer  commits  these  chapters  to  the  public,  making  no  claim 
to  originality  beyond  the  accounts  of  his  own  explorations  of  the 
mounds  and  caves  therein  contained .* 

It  should  be  noticed  that  this  memoir  has  already  appeared  in 
the  voluminous  work,  entitled,  "The  Commonwealth  of  Mis- 
souri," and  as  there  has  been,  ever  since  the  appearance  of  that 
work,  much  inquiry  from  various  quarters,  particularly  out- 
side of  Missouri,  for  the  Archaeological  portion,  and  by  those  who 
had  no  special  interest  in  the  local  history  of  our  State,  and  there- 
fore did  not  care  to  incur  the  expense  of  purchasing  so  costly  a 
work  as  the  Commonwealth,  it  has  seemed  best,  without  further 
delay,  to  reprint  the  work  from  the  original  plates,  as  it  first 
appeared  in  the  history  referred  to.  This  statement  will  explain 
the  frequent  allusions  which  will  be  noticed,  to  that  work. 

A.  J.  C 


*  It  may  not  be  amiss  to  state,  also,  that  an  additional  interest  may  attach  to  the  sub- 
ject-matter of  this  work,  because  it  is  the  result  of  explorations  in  an  entirely  new  field, 
concerning  which  nothing  has  before  been  published.  The  account  of  every  new  "find  " 
in  the  Archaeological  field  always  elicits  the  attention  of  scientists  all  over  the  world. 
This  is  illustrated  by  the  fact  that  a  short,  paper  upon  the  mounds  in  Southeast  Mis- 
souri, read  by  the  author  of  this  book  at  a  meeting  of  the  St.  Louis  Academy  of  Science, 
and  published  in  its  transactions,  has  been  translated  and  republished  in  France,  Ger- 
many, Austria  and  Denmark. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

Traces  of  Vanished  Peoples. — Their  World-wide  Diffusion  . — Russian  Earth- 
works.— Egj'ptian  Monuments  Ancient  at  the  Date  of  Oldest  Records. — A 
Troy  Still  Older  than  the  Ancient  Troy  of  Homer 

CHAPTER  II. 

Methods  of  the  Archaeologist. — The  Shell-heaps  of  the  Baltic. — The  Buried  For- 
ests of  Denmark. — The  Sisterhood  of  Science. — The  Five  Geological  Periods. 
— The  Agres  of  Stone  and    Bronze. — Iron  in  Common  Use  Three  Thousand 


Page. 


Years  Ago . 


CHAPTER   III. 

No  "Age  of  Bronze  "  in  America. — Traditions  Regarding  the  Mounds. — Tus- 
carora  Chronology. — The  Animal  Mounds  of  the  Upper  Mississippi  Region. — 
Ancient  Fish  Traps. — Burial,  Sacrificial  and  Historical  Mounds 12 

CHAPTER  IV. 

The  Archaeological  Monuments  of  Missouri. — Their  Rapid  Destruction. — Sites  of 
Towns  and  Cities. — The  Labors  of  H.  M.  Brackenridge. — The  Big  Mound  at 
St.  Louis. — Col.  O'Fallon's  Residence  Erected  on  an  Ancient  Mound. — The 
Mounds  in  Forest  Park. — Evidences  of  a  Vast  Population. — New  Madrid  its 
Center. — Description  of  Various  Works 25 

CHAPTER  V. 

One  People  the  Builders  of  these  Mounds. — Cremation  and  Burial  Mounds. — The 
Big  Mound  at  St.  Louis. — Mistaken  Views. — Minute  Description  of  the  Work. 
— Stone  Mounds. — Stone  Sepulchres  in  St.  Louis  and  Perry  Counties 3S 

CHAPTER  VI. 

"The  Cave-Dwellers. *' — Tales  of  Discoveries  in  Kentucky,  etc. — The  Caves  of 
the  Ozark  Mountains. — Proofs  of  Long  Occupancy.— Skeletons  and  Other 
Relics  Found.  —  The  Cave-Dwellers  a  Different  Race  From  the  Mound- 
Builders  47 


x  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  VII. 

Temple  Mounds.— Growth  of  Ancient  Religious  Systems.— Characteristics  of  this 
Class  of  Monuments. — The  Greal  Mound  at  Cahokia  its  best  Representative 
in ITorth  America.— Brackenridge's  Description  of  it  in  1811. — How  it  came  to 
be  called  "  Monk's  Mound."'— The  Ceremonies  of  the  Sun-Worshippers.— 
Other  Temple  Mounds.  —  The  Indians  not  Descended  From  the  Mound- 
Builders  53 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

Garden  Mounds.— The  Food  of  the  Pre-Historie  Races.— Fish  Probably  one  of 
their  Main  Resources. — The  use  of  the  Ditches  within  their  City  Walls. — 
Domestic  Animals. — Agriculture. — Religious  Systems. — Dissimilarity  between 
Northern  and  Southern  Tribes  of  Indiana— Traces  of  Aztec  Culture  Among 
the  Latter. — Vast  Numbers  of  the  Garden  Mounds. — Proofs  of  their  Purpose. 
— The  Utah  Mounds. — Interesting  Discoveries. — A  new  Variety  of  "Wheat 
Grown  from  Kernels  found  Therein.— An  Opening  for  Further  Researches. . .         G2 

CHAPTER  IX. 

Miscellaneous  Works.— Historical  or  National  Festival  Mounds.— Stone  Struc- 
tures.—Ruins  on  the  Gasconade  River.— Group  near  Louisiana,  Mo.— Some 
Indiana  Relics.— Cremation  Chambers.— Proofs  of  Agricultural  Knowledge. 
—Great  Canals  Ante-dating  the  Erie. —Ancient  Counterparts  of  Modern 
Achievements.— Our  Southern  "  Bayous  "  of  Artificial  Origin 70 

CHAPTER  X. 

Pottery.— Superiority  of  Pre-Historic  America  Wares  over  those  of  Europe. — 
Imitations  of  Living  Objects.— The  Materials  Used.— Reliquaries.— Skulls 
Enclosed  in  Earthen  Vessels.— Bowls  with  Ornamental  Heads.— Probabilities 
of  Higher  Art  Among  the  Ancients 79 

CHAPTER  XI. 

Crania.— Differences  Between  the  Skulls  of  the  Mound-Builders  and  the  Indians. 

Difficulties  of  the  Subject. — Two  Varieties  of  Crania  in  the  same  Mounds. — 

Principles  of  Classification.— Influence  of  Local  Customs.— Peruvian  Skulls.— 
Characteristics  of  Missouri  Specimens,  etc.— The  Tools  of  Ancient  Americans. 
—Proofs  of  a  Knowledge  of  Iron 97 

CHAPTER  XII. 

Concluding  Observations.— The  Origin  of  the  Pre-Historic  Races  of  America.— 
Theory  of  Spontaneous  Generation —The  Law  Governing  their  Migrations.— 
Successive  Movements  of  the  Nahua  Race.— The  Aztecs  the  Last  Colony  of 
that  People.— Opinions  of  Baron  Humboldt.— Our  own  Country  Probably  the 
Original  Home  of  the  Aztec  Civilization.— The  Indian  Races  of  Asiatic  Origin. 
—Facilities  of  Immigration  via.  Behring'S  Straits.— A  Personal  Word.— Dry 
Bones  Clothed 113 


Man  in  the  A?e  of  the  Mammoth  and  Great  Bear. 


CHAPTER  I. 

Traces  of  Vanished  Peoples.  — Their  World-Wide  Diffusion.  — Russian  Earth- 
works.— Egyptian  Monuments  Ancient  at  the  Date  of  Oldest  Records.— A 
Troy  Still  Older  than  ihe  Ancient  Troy  of  Homer. 

IN  all  lands,  whenever  in  the  ages  past  the  climate  has  been  such  as 
to  render  it  possible  for  man  to  subsist,  the  earth  is  found  thickly 
planted  with  the  graves  of  vanished  peoples.  Countless  generations 
have  come  and  gone,  and  left  no  record  of  their  lives  and  work,  save 
what  is  to  be  found  in  the  few  surviving  monuments  they  have  erected, 
or  the  rude  implements  and  fragmentary  remains  of  their  industry, 
which  descended  with  them  to  the  tomb.  The  great  ocean  of  humanity, 
with  the  energy  of  its  ceaseless  flow, has  oft-times,  no  doubt,  obliterated 
the  traces  of  former  generations,  save  here  and  there  a  foot-print  in  the 
solid  rock,  or  an  empty  shell  which  has  been  left  upon  the  shores  of  time. 
We  of  to-day  build,  sow  and  reap,  buy  and  sell,  and  thus  repeat,  over 
smd  over  again,  the  great  drama  of  life,  above  the  sepulchers  of  departed 
millions,  long  since  forgotten.  How  often  the  long  eons  have  finished 
their  cycles  and  the  new  began — who  can  compute,  or  from  whence 
shall  the  data  be  drawn  upon  which  such  computation  may  be  based? 
The  sacred  records  furnish  no  system  of  the  chronology  of  the  race, 
nor  standing- ground  upon  which  a  trustworthy  one  can  be  constructed. 
The  wisest    who  have  essayed    the    task,  from  such  sources,  differ  in 


4  ARCHEOLOGY. 

their  estimates  more  than  five  thousand  years.  The  devout  believer 
in  Revelation,  therefore,  need  feel  no  apprehensions  for  the  foundations 
of  his  faith  if  it  shall  be  proven  even  that  man  has  been  an  inhabitant 
of  the  earth  for  a  hundred  thousand  years  or  more. 

All  that  can  be  gained  from  history,  sacred  and  profane,  supplemented 
with  the  hieroglyphic  annals  of  Egypt  and  the  inscribed  bricks  and 
cylinders  of  Assyria,  carries  us  back  only  about  forty-four  centuries. 
Suddenly  we  come  then  to  the  border-land  of  legendary  myths  and 
extravagant  traditions.  The  thick  darkness  which  enshrouds  all  beyond, 
no  one,  a  hundred  years  ago,  thought  possible  to  penetrate  or  dispel. 
But  within  the  last  fifty  years  a  new  science  has  been  added  to  the 
varied  departments  of  human  knowledge  and  research — the  science  of 
Archeology,  pure  and  proper, — and  thousands  to-day,  including  many 
of  the  best  minds  in  the  most  enlightened  lands,  are  devoting  to  it  their 
serious  and  earnest  labors. 

The  field  of  exploration  is  the  wide  world,  whose  continents  are  all 
equally  rich  in  the  monuments  of  the  forgotten  past.  From  the  widely- 
separated  quarters  of  this  great  field,  the  laborers  gather  from  time  to 
time,  bringing  the  results  of  their  work.  All  these  combined  are 
throwing  their  focal  light  upon  the  great  questions  of  the  origin  and 
antiquity  of  the  various  races  of  mankind — their  peculiar  customs  and 
mode  of  life — investing  them  with  an  interest  never  before  awakened, 
which  increases  more  and  more,  as  the  promise  brightens  of  their 
satisfactory  elucidation.  The  number  of  the  monuments  of  which  we 
speak,  upon  our  own  continent,  is  legion  upon  legion.  From  Nova 
Scotia  to  the  southern  coast  of  Florida — from  Behring's  Strait  to  Mexico 
and  Peru — from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific — are  to  be  found  the  sites  of 
ancient  cities,  or  the  former  seats  of  a  dense  population.  Europe,  as 
every  one  knows,  is  full  of  them.  Not  only  on  the  surface  of  the  soil, 
but  far  down  in  the  gravels  of  the  drift,  are  found  the  remains  of  man 
in  companionship  with  the  bones  of  huge  mammals,  who  were  buried 
there,  it  would  seem,  long  before  the  "British  Channel  was  scooped 
out."  In  Russia,  from  its  western  border  to  the  Pacific,  from  its 
southernmost  limit  far  north  into  the  inhospitable  regions  of  Siberia, 
earthworks  are  found  giving  evidences  of  long  occupancy,  and  doubtless 
a  forced  migration  to  the  North.  There,  in  the  sepulchers  of  the  dead, 
they  deposited  the  gold  and  silver  ornaments  and  other  treasures  of  the 
departed,  in  which  relics  the  more  recent  inhabitants  have  driven  a 
thriving   trade.      The    great   steppes    of   Asia  abound   with    sepulchral 


TKACES  OF  VANISHED  PEOPLES.  & 

mounds.  Nor  are  the  deserts  of  Africa  without  their  witness  to  the 
existence  of  former  generations.  Hei  remorseless  sands  are  the  tomb 
of  many  an  ancient  city. 

Egypt,  the  oldest  nation  which  has  preserved  a  written  history,  has 
also  her  pre-historic  remains.  Before  the  name  of  Athens  was  pro- 
nounced, or  Greece  was  born — when  Italy  was  peopled  with  savage  tribes 
as  wild  and  barbarous  as  the  red  men  of  America, — Egypt  wras  far 
advanced  in  the  higher  branches  of  knowledge,  the  sciences  and  the 
nobler  arts.  Her  priests  even  then  dwelt  in  the  palaces  of  the  kings, 
and  issued  their  mandates,  with  his,  from  the  throne.  Those  palaces 
were  colleges  of  learning,  while  the  priests  were  the  professors,  who 
not  only  ministered  in  matters  of  religion  and  worship,  but  devoted 
themselves  to  the  higher  education  of  the  young  as  well. 

To-day,  as  the  explorer  removes  the  stones  from  her  ancient  structures, 
he  finds  here  and  there  one,  whose  inner  surface  is  carved  with  curious 
devices  and  inscriptions,  showing  that  it  once  had  a  place  in  older  and* 
demolished  edifices.  She  had  then  her  libraries  also,  in  which  the 
knowledge  of  her  sages  was  preserved.  Tombs  of  the  librarians  have 
been  discovered,  dating  back  at  least  five  hundred  years  before  Homer 
sang  in  the  cities  of  Greece,  and  inscribed   "To  the  chief  of  books." 

Lono*  since,  the  line  of  the  Pharaohs  became  extinct,  and  no  prince  or 
king — So  the  prophet  said — shall  ever  sit  on  her  throne  again  or  sway 
the  scepter  over  the  land  of  the  Nile.  How  old  she  seems  !  And  yet  old 
Egypt  was  of  yesterday,  compared  with  the  men  of  the  drift,  the 
reindeer  period,  or  the  pre-glacial  times  of  Scandinavia,  Scotland, 
France,  England  and  the  Pyrenees. 

These  everywhere  ancient  monuments  of  which  we  speak,  men  have 
been  wont  to  regard  with  unquestioning  curiosity,  or  at  most  to  pass  by 
with  a  conjecture  only,  as  Homer  did,  who  speaks  of  the  ancient  mounds, 
concerning  which,  in  his  day  even,  there  was  no  history  or  tradition,  and 
who  imagined  they  might  be  the  tombs  of  ancient  heroes.  Job  makes 
more  than  one  allusion  to  the  monuments  and  "solitary  mansions  of  the 
dead,"  which  awakened  the  curiosity  of  the  caravans  and  travelers  of 
Teman,  as  they  passed  along  the  great  thoroughfares  of  commerce. 
The  wild  songs  of  the  most  ancient  bards  are  no  longer  poetic  myths, 
the  creations  of  a  fervid  imagination ;  but  their  inspiration  was  drawn 
from  events  which  actually  transpired.  "With  truth  their  souls  were  fired." 
The  poets  were  the  nations'  historians  as  well.  Troy,  with  her  strange 
story,  is  no  longer  a  doubtful  city.     Dr.  Schlieman  has  found  her  ancient 


6  AJRCILEOLOGY. 

site  and  discovered  enough,  among  her  long-entombed  memorials,  to> 
authenticate  her  history ;  and  we  may  write  once  more  "Ilium  est" 
for  "  Ilium  fuit." 

And  what  is  most  surprising  of  all,  far  down  beneath  the  level  of  the 
ground  once  trod  by  the  heroes  whose  names  Homer  has  given  to 
immortality,  the  explorer  has  found  the  ruins  of  another  city  —  and  he 
thinks  still  another  below  it — concerning  which  the  poet  seems  to  have 
heard  no  tradition.  Among  those  deposits  of  an  age  so  remote,  were 
articles  of  stone  and  bronze  and  precious  metals,  skillfully  wrought,  giv- 
ing evidence  of  the  existence  of  a  people  whose  knowledge,  attainments, 
and  social  condition  were  far  in  advance  of  those  of  the  more  ancient 
periods  of  stone  and  bronze — a  civilization  which  could  only  have  been 
realized  by  the  slow  growth  of  centuries. 

But  not  alone  upon  that  glorious  land,  made  immortal  by  the  fiery 
energy  of  Homer's  matchless  sougs,  has  a  resurrection  morning  dawned, 
.nor  Egypt  and  Assyria  with  their  hieroglyphic  annals,  hoary  with  age  ;  but 
other  lands,  unknown  in  classic  story,  and  the  islands  of  the  sea,  are 
divine  up  their  long-forgotten  dead.  The  explorers  of  to-day  are 
breakino-  down  the  hitherto  impassable  barriers  of  the  remoter  ages  of 
antiquity ;  here  and  tjiere  we  catch  glimpses  of  the  life  and  customs,  and 
hold  converse  with  the  tribes  and  peoples  of  pre-historic  times.  The 
fast-accumulating  records  which  have  been  gathered  during  the  last 
twenty-five  years  are  continually  enriching  the  libraries  of  every  civilized 
nation,  and  he  who  would  master  them  all  will  soon  find  life  too  short  to 
do  more  than  acquaint  himself  with  the  grand  results  of  the  multiplied 
discoveries.  The  chief  difficulty  then,  it  will  be  perceived,  in  the 
way  of  the  present  task,  is  one  of  condensation,  or  in  other  words, 
how  to  select  from  such  vast  material  only  those  facts  and  observations 
which  are  necessary  for  the  proper  treatment  of  the  subject  we  are 
about  to  consider. 

On  account  of  the  limits  prescribed  for  the  archaeological  chapters  of 
this  work  compelling  all  possible  economy  of  space,  and  also  for  the  sake 
of  continuity,  instead  of  burdening  them  with  frequent  references  to  the 
authors  consulted,  I  desire  in  the  outset  to  make  all  due  acknowledgment 
of  my  indebtedness  to  those  valued  records  of  the  labors  of  the  noble 
army  of  abler  men  who  have  preceded  me  in  like  investigations  in  this 
department  of  knowledge.  Chief  among  those  which  have  been  freely 
consulted,  are  the  writings  of  Garcillasso  de  la  Vega,  Prof. 
Refinesque,    Daniel  Willson,  LL.D.,    Alexander  W.  Bradford, 


TJEtACES  OF  VANISHED  PEOPLES.  7 

J.  W.  Foster,  Edward  L.  Clark,  Wm.  Pidgeon,  Prof.  G.  C.  Swal- 
low, Sir  John  Lubbock,  M.  L.  Figuier,  M.  Marlot,  John  Evans, 
Lewis  C.  Beck,  H.  M.  Brackenridge,  James  Adair,  and  others. 
Also,  au  article  upon  the  Archseology  of  Missouri,  contributed  by 
myself  to  the  last  volume  of  Transactions  of  the  St.  Louis  Academy  of 
Science. 


CHAPTER  II.  • 

Methods  of  the  Archaeologist.  —  The  Shell-heaps  of  the  Baltic. —  The  Buried 
Forests  of  Denmark.—  The  Sisterhood  of  Science.—  The  Five  Geological 
Periods.— The  Ages  of  Stone  and  Bronze.— Iron  in  common  use  three  thousand 
years  ago. 

As  before  remarked,  in  almost  every  land  upon  the  surface  of  the 
globe,  are  to  be  found  countless  monuments  and  memorials  of  vanished 
races;  sometimes  structures  of  imposing  magnitude,  but  oftener  imple- 
ments of  war  and  the  chase,  of  domestic  use  and  personal  adornment. 
From  such  remains,  more  or  less  rude  and  defaced,  it  has  been  found 
possible  to  reconstruct  a  pre-historic  history  of  man's  life  in  the  most 
remote  ages  of  his  existence  ;  and  by  their  careful  study  we  are  able  to 
scrutinize  his  manner  of  life  ;  to  look  in  upon  his  domestic  scenes  ;  to 
witness  his  ceaseless  struggles  for  existence — his  mode  of  burial ;  and 
to  learn  something  of  his  notions  of  another  life.  Only  one  important 
thing  is  forever  lost — his  language.  For  "we  can  never  hear  him  speak." 
Yet  the  history  we  may  recover  is  as  true  and  touching  as  any  which 
the  poets  sing.  Nor  need  all  this  be  thought  incredible,  for  these 
results  are  obtained  by  the  simple  processes  of  reasoning  and  induction 
which  we  apply  to  the  affairs  of  every-day  life.  When  the  traveler 
upon  our  western  plains  stumbles  by  chance  upon  the  ashes  and  debris 
of  a  former  habitation,  if  he  finds  there  the  fragments  of  a  hoe  and 
sickle,  he  at  once  infers  that  the  former  occupant  was  a  tiller  of  the 
soil ;  should  his  eye  light  upon  a  cast-off  shoe  of  infantile  propor- 
tions, he  naturally  concludes  that  once  it  was  the  home  of  childhood. 
In  addition  to  this,  should  he  discover  charred  bits  of  bread  and  other 
articles  of  food,  carbonized  grain  and  fruits,  along  with  culinary 
articles,  showing  the  action  of  fire,  these  facts  would  show  what  crops 


8  ARCHEOLOGY. 

were  grown,  the  kind  of  food  upon  which  the  family  subsisted,  and  also 
that  the  dwelling  was  destroyed  by  fire.  The  presence  of  the  fragments 
of  a  crucifix  would  point  to  the  religious  belief  of  the   former  occupant. 

Such  is  the  method  of  the  archaeologist.  When  he  examines  the  huge 
heaps  of  shells  along  the  shores  of  the  numerous  arms  of  the  Baltic 
sea,  composed  of  individuals  of  large  size,  select  and  full-grown,  of 
several  species,  commingled  with  rude  implements  of  stone  and  bone, 
with  also  the  bones  of  the  codfish,  and  compares  them  with  the 
diminutive  specimens  he  is  able  to  procure  from  the  same  waters  now, 
it  is  an  inference  most  reasonable,  that  when  these  heaps  were  piled  up 
around  the  miserable  huts  of  the  ancient  fishermen,  the  waters  of  the 
Baltic  were  not  so  fresh  as  how.  The  presence  of  the  bones  of  the 
codfish  gives  some  evidence  of  skill  in  navigation,  for  they  must  be  caught 
in  the  open  sea.  When  the  peat-bogs  of  this  same  country  are  examined, 
they  present  a  record  reaching  far  back  of  the  historic  period.  These 
depressions  in  the  natural  surface  of  the  earth — sometimes  to  the  depth 
of  thirty  feet,  disclose  three  distinct  periods  of  arborescent  vegetation. 
At  the  bottom  are  the  stately  trunks  of  the  pine  tree ;  above  these  the 
oak,  which  once  grew  upon  the  sides  of  the  pits,  and  when  their  full 
maturity  was  reached,  fell  inward.  The  oak  was  succeeded  by  the  beech 
airl  birch  which  now  flourish — and  have  flourished  during  all  the  period 
of  history — throughout  the  land.  The  pine  and  oak  have  never  been 
known  during  the  historic  period  in  the  native  forests  of  Denmark. 
In  these  bogs,  beneath  the  layers  of  pine,  are  found  the  rude  implements 
of  the  ancient  inhabitants.  Man  lived,  then,  when  the  pine  forests  were 
in  their  glory,  and  at  that  time  also  piled  up  the  shell  heaps  along  the 
shore ;  for  in  these  are  found  in  great  abundance  the  bones  of  a  bird 
whose  food  is  derived  from  the  pine. 

Again  :  when  the  student  of  Archaeology  discovers  —  as  is  frequently 
the  case — the  bones  of  extinct  mammals,  in  situ,  each  bone  lying  by  its 
fellow  in  its  relative  position  as  when  in  life,  he  knows  there  can  have 
been  no  disturbance  of  the  remains  since  the  death  of  the  animal.  If  he 
finds  also,  in  companionship  with  them,  the  relics  of  man's  industry,  he 
believes  that  these  mammals  and  man  were  contemporaneous.  Should  he 
find,  further,  huge  bones  split  longitudinally,  and  showing  marks  and 
scratches  of  flint  knives,  which  could  only  have  been  made  while  the  bones 
were  soft,  he  naturally  concludes  that  man  hunted  these  animals  for  food 
and  split  the  bones  to  obtain  the  marrow.  But  the  generalizations  of  the 
archaeologist  are  not  based  upon  the  study  of  such  relics  alone.    Geology, 


TRACES  OF  VANISHED  PEOPLES. 


Paleontology  and  Archaeology  go  hand  in  hand,  and  have  well  been 
called  "three  sister  sciences."  Each  of  these  three  related  departments 
of  human  knowledge  is  throwing  its  focal  light  with  increasing  luster 
upon  the  great  question  of  man's  first  appearance  upon  the  earth.  By 
the  light  of  their  combined  disclosures,  the  steps  of  our  groping  feet 
are  illumined  as  we  travel  slowly  along  the  pathway  which  leads  us 
irresistibly  to  the  night  of  the  unknown  ages,  "and  the  mind  recoils 
dismayed  when  it  undertakes  the  computation  of  the  thousands  of  }7ears 
which  have  elapsed  since  the  creation  of  man." 

The  five  geological  periods 
into  which  the  crust  of  the 
earth  has  been  divided,  are 
commonly  named  in  the  rel- 
ative   order    of    their    age : 


the  primitive  rocks,  the  tran- 
sition rocks,  the  secondary 
rocks,  the  tertiary  rocks,  and 
quaternary  rocks.  All  of 
these  are  anterior  to  the  pres- 
ent geological  period.  The 
long  succession  of  animals 
and  plants  peculiar  to  each, 
is  found  generally  to  have 
died  out  during  the  time  of 
its  continuance.  Judging 
from  the  present  order  of 
things,    each     period     must  A  Solitary  Cave  Dweller> 

have  been  of  long  duration  ;  for  the  animals  and  plants  with  which  we 
are  familiar  show  scarcely  any  alteration  since  their  first  appearance, 
though  they  have  existed  for  thousands  of  years.  Now  it  is  considered 
certain  by  the  best  informed,  that  man  existed  iu  Europe  at  the 
commencement  of  the  quaternary  period. 

We  are  not  left  in  doubt  as  to  the  climatic  conditions  of  that  country  in 
those  remote  times,  which  must  have  been  similar  to  the  polar  regions  of 
the  North  to-day.  There  was  no  Iceland,  Scotland,  or  Scandinavia  then. 
The  whole  continent  was  shrouded  in  a  winding  sheet  of  snow.  Her 
now  beautiful  valleys  were  the  bottom  of  the  sea.  Enormous  ice-fields 
stretched  away  from  mountain  to  mountain,  and  only  the  highest 
elevations  of  the  Pyrenees  and  Apennines  were  visible  above  the  vast 
expanse  of  eternal  snow  and  ice.    Yet  there,  during  that  awful  winter,  for 


10 


ARCHEOLOGY. 


which  there  was  no  promise  of  a  coming  spring,  man  and  cotemporaneous 
animals  contrived  to  exist.  But  what  a  lite  !  To  us,  it  would  seem 
utterly  hopeless  and  dreary  ;  but  for  its  maintenance  he  found  abundant 
employment  for  all  his  activities,  in  providing  means  for  his  daily 
sustenance,  and  in  his  contests  with  the  wild  beasts  around  him  for  the 
possession  of  the  shelters  of  the  caves  and  overhanging  rocks.  How 
long  this  period  continued  we  cannot  know ;  but  the  centuries  rolled 
on,  and  slowly  the  glacial  period  comes  to  an  end — the  ice-fields  melt 
away,  the  glaciers  retreat  to  the  north,  and  the  submerged  continent 
arises  from  the  ocean.  The  sunshine  and  the  genial  air  of  a  new  spring 
morning  dissipate  the  tears  from  the  face  of  Nature,  and  she  hastens  to 
put   on   her  robes  of  green.     With  this  dawn  of   another  life  a  new 


The  Elephas  Primogeneus. 

generation  of  animals  now  makes  its  appearance  on  the  earth,  and  very 
different  too,  from  those  which  perished  during  the  glacial  period. 
Among  them  the  huge  mammoth  (  Elephas  primigeneus)  with  his 
woolly  covering  and  lion-like,  shaggy  mane;  the  Siberian  Ehinoceros 
(  RJdnoceros  tichorinus,  with  curious  horns )  and  clothing  of  fur,  so  soft 
and  warm  ;  several  species  of  the  Hippopotamus ;  the  Cave  Bear,  of 
prodigious  size,  (  Ursus  spelceus)  ;  the  Cave  Lion  (Felts  spelea)  ;  various 
kinds  of  Hyenas,  the  Bison,  the  Urns,  (Bos  primigenus ),  and  the 
gigantic  Irish  Elk,  with  enormous  wTide-spreading  antlers,  and  many 
others  which  need  not  now  be  mentioned. 


TKACES  OF  VANISHED  PEOPLES.  H 

These  huge  monsters  rapidly  multiply  and  roam  in  countless  multi- 
tudes over  the  continent,  as  do  the  buffaloes  of  our  western  wilds 
to-day.  Hundreds  and  thousands  gather  together  in  their  favorite 
resorts  and  from  some  cause  unknown  they  perish.  How  man  could 
successfully  contend  with  such  formidable  adversaries  with  the  rude 
implements  he  was  able  to  construct  by  his  infantile  skill,  is  surprising; 
but  his  necessities  compelled  him  to  be  victorious.  Nor  was  he  then 
destitute  of  aesthetic  taste  ;  for  at  his  leisure  he  carved  in  stone  or  bone 
the  outlines  of  the  beasts  he  had  slain  in  the  chase. 

At  length  the  long  summer  ends,  and  another  fearful  winter  begins. 
Again  the  cold  is  intense ;  the  glaciers  advance  through  the  valleys 
toward  the  south.  The  floods  increase,  the  caves  are  submerged,  and 
man  seeks  a  home  again  in  the  mountain  ranges.  The  valleys  are  filled 
with  alluvium  for  hundreds  of  feet  up  the  mountain  sides.  The  centu- 
ries roll  on — how  long,  no  one  can  tell, —  and  again  another  subsidence 
of  the  floods,  or  uprising  of  the  continent,  takes  place,  and  the  glaciers 
once  more  recede  to  the  north.  Slowly  the  mountain  tops  are  lifted 
toward  the  sky,  and  the  earth  is  clad  again  in  green. 

Man  now  returns  to  the  former  abodes  of  his  ancestors.  But  what 
a  change  has  taken  place  !  Many  of  the  mighty  mammals  his  forefathers 
hunted  on  the  plains  are  seen  no  more.  A  few  solitary  individuals 
linger  on,  but  soon  he  witnesses  "the  extinction  and  disappearance  from 
the  face  of  the  earth  of  an  entire  fauna  of  the  larger  animals." 

From  this  period  the  Reindeer  epoch, — known  also  as  the  period  of  mi- 
grated animals — begins.  A  new  civilization  dawns.  Polished  implements 
of  stone  and  bone  take  the  place  of  rude  chips  and  splinters  of  silex. 
Pottery  is  manufactured  and  ornamented  with  curious  devices ;  and  all 
that  man  does  displays  the  awakening  exercise  of  his  sense  for  beauty. 
From  this  time  the  race  proceeds  with  slow  but  steady  advancement. 
How  long  the  Neolithic,  or  polished  stone  period  lasted,  we  have  no 
means  of  judging,  nor  when  men  learned  to  smelt  the  more  yielding 
ores,  and  to  make  bronze  by  the  alloy  of  copper  with  tin.  But  when 
that  great  discovery  was  made  by  which  he  supplied  himself  with  a 
material  so  much  better  fitted  by  its  superior  hardness  to  copper  for 
cutting  implements  and  other  uses,  he  entered  that  pathway,  which  ends 
only  in  all  the  glorious  possibilities  of  the  future.  With  this  discovery, 
the  age  of  Bronze  was  ushered  in.  Speedily  its  use  spread  over  the 
greater  part  of  Europe.  With  the  age  of  bronze  the  arts  and  sciences 
may  be  said  to  have  had  their  birth.  Of  the  time  of  its  continuance, 
which  seems  to  have  been  long,  we  know  but  little  more  than  we  do  of 


12  ARCHEOLOGY. 

the  a"-e  of  stone.  But  at  length  it  seems  to  have  been  brought  to  a 
sudden  termination  by  that  mightiest  physical  event  in  the  history  of 
the  development  of  mankind — the  discovery  of  Iron.  As  to  the  time 
■when  this  great  transition  took  place,  history  is  silent ;  for  it  was  long 
before  history  began.  The  poems  of  Homer  and  Hesiod  prove  that 
iron  was  known  and  in  use  at  least  three  thousand  years  ago. 


CHAPTER  III. 


No  "Age  of  Bronze"  in  America —Traditions  Regarding  the  Mounds.— Tuscarora 
Chronology.— The  Animal  Mounds  of  the  Upper  Mississippi  Region— Ancient 
Fish  Traps.— Burial,  Sacrificial  and  Historical  Mounds. 

The  facts,  and  the  conclusions  they  suggest,  presented  in  the  fore- 
going chapter,  are  gathered  mostly  from  the  continent  of  Europe. 
Each  of  the  great  geographical  divisions  of  the  globe  seems  to  possess 
an  archaeological  record  more  or  less  peculiar  to  itself.  Our  own 
continent  has  had  no  age  of  bronze.  At  the  time  of  its  discovery, 
however,  implements  of  copper,  beaten  out  usually,  but  sometimes 
smelted  and  cast  in  a  mold,  from  the  native  ore,  were  to  some  extent 
taking  the  place  of  those  of  stone  and  bone.  And  although  the  copper 
regions  of  Lake  Superior,  for  the  distance  of  more  than  one  hundred  and 
fifty  miles  along  it  southern  shore,  give  evidence  of  long-continued 
mining  operations  upon  a  stupendous  scale,  still  we  must  believe  that  this 
metal  was  too  costly  to  be  to  any  great  extent  the  property  of  the  masses  : 
while,  even  in  our  own  times  the  remnants  of  some  savage  tribes  may  be 
found  who  still  point  their  spears  and  arrows  with  stone.  The  presence 
of  the  relics  of  such  material  therefore,  it  hardly  need  be  said,  is  of  no 
value  in  questions  of  antiquity,  only  so  far  as  they  are  found  in  compan- 
ionship with  the  remains  of  extinct  animals,  or  their  age  is  demonstrated 
by  geological  or  some  other  irrefragable  proofs. 

But  now,  leaving  all  other  facts  and  considerations  bearing  upon  the 
general  subject  of  archaeology,  which  might  be  interesting  and  appropriate 
in  this  connection,  it  is  proper  to  proceed  to  the  examination  of  the  monu- 
ments of  our  own  land,  among  which  those  found  in  Missouri  are 
peculiarly  instructive,  not  only  as  forming  no  inconspicuous  part  of  the 
one  great  whole,  and  calculated  to  shed  much  light  upon  the  question  of 


TRADITIONS  REGARDING  THE  MOUNDS.  13 

the  homogeneity  of  the  vast  population  which  once  swarmed  upon  this 
continent,  but  also — if  not  their  origin — at  least  the  direction  of  their 
disappearance. 

In  view  of  the  magnitude  of  the  subject,  the  ethnological  questions 
involved,  and  the  evident  relation  of  these  remains  to  all  which  are 
found  in  both  North  and  South  America,  it  has  seemed  to  me  impossible 
to  examine  them  in  the  most  profitable  manner,  if  our  examination  shall 
be  circumscribed  by  the  imaginary  boundaries  of  the  State.  For  the 
reason  mentioned,  I  have  also  presented,  as  briefly  as  possible,  the 
preceding  statement  of  the  results  achieved  by  the  labors  of  the 
archaeologists  of  Europe.  I  will  now  proceed  to  speak  of  some  of  the 
more  important  monuments  of  this  country,  with  such  description 
as  suits  my  present  purpose. 

The  statement  has  been  often  repeated  by  writers  upon  this  subject, 
that  the  Indians  have  no  traditions  concerning  the  authors  or  the 
design  of  these  monuments.  This  is  undoubtedly  true  as  far  as  the 
degenerate  remnants  of  the  tribes  of  the  present  day  are  concerned. 
But  when  the  country  was  first  discovered,  and  long  after,  here  and 
there  a  solitary  individual  was  found  who  claimed  to  be  a  prophet,  and 
to  have  descended  from  a  long  priestly  line,  and  also  from  a  race 
superior  to  the  Indians  by  whom  their  forefathers  had  been  conquered 
and  enslaved.  Concerning  the  traditions  handed  down  from  father  to  son, 
they  were  very  reticent,  except  under  peculiar  circumstances  and  with 
those  who  gained  their  highest  confidence  and  esteem.  The  sacred 
treasures  of  their  history,  of  which  they  were  the  preservers  and 
guardians,  were  not  for  the  common  masses  of  their  own  people  ;  much 
less  would  they  communicate  them  to  strangers  and  foes.  And  when, 
as  it  sometimes  happened,  their  frigid  reserve  would  be  conquered,  and  a 
narration  of  their  legendary  history  elicited,  it  was  considered  more 
wild  and  untrustworthy  than  the  long  lists  of  Manetho  and  Berosus,  of 
Egyptian  and  Assyrian  dynasties,  and  not  worth  preserving.  From 
this  cause  many  valuable  facts  have  been  irrecoverably  lost.  A  few 
only  have  escaped  oblivion,  of  which  the  briefest  possible  mention  can 
now  be  made. 

The  traditions  of  the  Wyandot  Indians,  according  to  the  account  of 
Mr.  Wm.  Walker,  for  some  time  Indian  Agent  for  the  Government, 
published  in  1823,  are  not  devoid  of  interest.  They  were  in  substance 
as  follows : 

Many  centuries  ago,  the  inhabitants  of  America,  who  were  the  authors 
of  the  great  works  in  the  Mississippi  Valley,  were  driven  to  the  south 


14  ARCHEOLOGY. 

by  an  army  of  savage  warriors  from  the  North.  After  many  huudred 
years,  a  messenger  returned  from  the  exiled  tribes,  with  the  alarming 
news,  that  a  terrible  beast  had  landed  on  their  shores,  who  was  carrying 
desolation  wherever  he  went,  with  thunder  and  fire.  Nothing  could  stay 
his  progess,  and  no  doubt  he  would  travel  all  over  the  land  in  his  fury. 

It  is  conjectured  that  this  beast  of  thunder  and  fire  referred  to  the 
Spanish  invasion  of  Mexico.  The  Tuscaroras,  according  to  the  account 
published  by  Mr.  David  Cusick  in  1827 — quoted  by  Prof.  Rafinesque — 
had  a  well-arranged  system  of  chronology,  dating  back  nearly  three 
thousand  years.  Their  traditions  locate  their  original  home  north  of 
the  great  lakes.  In  process  of  time,  some  of  their  people  migrated  to 
the  river  Kanawag  ( the  St.  Lawrence ) .  After  many  years,  a  foreign 
people  came  by  the  sea  and  settled  south  of  the  lakes.  Then  follow 
long  accounts  of  wars,  and  fierce  invasions  by  nations  from  the  north, 
led  by  confederate  kings  and  a  renowned  hero  named  Yatatan.  Many 
years  again  elapse,  and  the  king  of  the  confederacy  pays  a  visit  to  a  mighty 
potentate  whose  seat  of  empire  is  called  the  Golden  City,  situated  south 
of  the  lakes;  and  so  on,  down  to  the  year  1143,  when  the  traditions 
end.  In  these  records  appear  accounts  of  wars  with  various  tribes, 
given  with  great  particularity  ;  migrations  southward  and  west  to  the 
Mississippi,  ( called  Onauweoka  )  ;  the  names  of  the  ruling  monarchs, 
and  the  order  of  their  succession.  There  appear  to  have  been  several 
dynasties  of  longer  or  shorter  duration.  Thus,  the  name  Tarenyawagou 
is  borne  by  three  successive  monarchs,  and  Atotaro  is  continued  to  the 
ninth. 

Only  a  few  items  are  here  given,  to  indicate  their  character.  No  one 
can  examine  these  traditions  without  being  convinced  that  they  have 
some  great  historic  facts  for  their  basis,  however  incredulous  he  may  be 
as  to  the  correctness  of  their  dates,  or  their  pretentions  to  so  high 
antiquity.  The  limits  prescribed  for  this  essay  admit  of  but  one  more 
notice  of  traditions  in  this  connection. 

A  class  of  works,  frequently  noticed  by  explorers,  is  found  on  the 
upper  Mississippi,  chiefly  in  Wisconsin, — a  few  in  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois 
and  Iowa — known  as  animal  mounds,  on  account  of  their  striking 
resemblance  to  the  forms  of  various  animals,  such  as  the  Buffalo,  Bear, 
Elk,  and  the  like,  and  some  to  the  human  form.  These  works  have 
elicited  much  discussion  and  conjecture  as  to  their  origin  and  purpose,  in 
which  no  two  writers  agree.  Some  of  them  are  of  gigantic  proportions, 
and  cannot  be  ascribed  to  the  present  race  of  Indians,  for  the  same 
reason  which  precludes  the  idea  that  they  were  the  authors  of  the 
stupendous  works  of  the  more  southern  States. 


THE  ANIMAL  MOUNDS.  15 

The  traditions  relating  to  these  animal  mounds  are  very  minute,  full 
and  interesting,  and  were  first  published  in  1853,  by  Mr.  Win.  Pido-eon, 
who  spent  several  years  in  the  examination  of  the  various  monuments  in 
Virginia,  the  Valley  of  the  Mississippi  and  South  America  as  well.  He 
tells  us  that  he  began  these  researches  from  motives  of  personal  interest 
merely,  and  continued  them  for  several  years,  without  any  design  of 
publishing  the  results  of  his  observations. 

During  his  travels  in  the  regions 
of  the  Upper  Mississippi,  he  met 
a  stranger  among  the  red  men,  of 
dignified  and  venerable  appear- 
ance, who  had  no  fixed  abiding 
place,  but  wandered  from  tribe  to 
tribe,  always  welcomed  and  ven- 
erated wherever  he  went ;  who 
claimed  to  have  descended  from  a  Fig<  '•-Mastodon  Mound- 

long  line  of  ancient  prophets,  he  the  last  of  the  line  and  the  last 
of  his  race.  He  was  then  nearly  ninety  years  of  age.  The  Indians 
called  him  "the  Mocking  Bird,"  because  he  could  speak  fluently 
five  different  languages.  By  kindness,  his  confidence  and  friendshipwere 
won,  and  his  companionship  secured  during  the  journey  of  exploration. 
He  seemed  perfectly  familiar  with  all  the  most  important  works,  from  the 
Ohio  to  the  extreme  north  and  the  far  west, — could  draw  their  outlines 
from  memory,  and  supply  any  defect  in  the  drawings  of  others  ;  and 
could  generally  give  a  ready  and  lucid  account  of  their  authors  and  the 
purposes  for  which  they  were  constructed.  Unlike  many  who  have 
written  upon  the  pre-historic  people  of  America,  the  author  seems  to  have 
had  no  pet  theory  to  maintain — as  that  they  were  the  ten  lost  tribes  of 
Israel,  and  the  like, — but  to  have  been  a  thoroughly  conscientious  and 
careful  observer,  faithfully  noting  what  he  saw  and  heard. 

From  the  seventy  engravings — and  accompanying  descriptions — with 
which  the  work  of  Mr.  Pidgeon  is  illustrated,  I  select  two  or  three,  and 
leave  the  reader  to  judge  whether  these  traditions  are  reasonable  and 
trustworthy  or  not. 

Many  years  ago,  in  the  bed  of  Paint  Creek,  in  Ross  County,  Ohio, 
several  deep  cavities  or  wells  were  discovered,  which  gave  rise  to  much 
speculation  as  to  their  origin  and  purpose.  I  believe  they  have  since 
been  found  in  many  other  localities.  Mr.  Pidgeon  states  that  he  dis- 
covered four  similar  ones  in  the  bed  of  a  small  tributary  of  the  St.  Peters 
river,  varying  in  depth  from  eight  to  twelve  feet,  from  five  to  six  feet  in 


16  AKCILEOLOGY. 

diameter  at  the  bottom  and  from  three  to  five  feet  at  the  top.  These 
excavations  were  made  in  the  soft  slate  rock  which  formed  the  bed  of 
the  stream. 

To  the  level  top,  or  rim  of  the  well,  a  thin  flat  rock  was  fitted,  with  a 
round  or  square  hole  in  the  center,  about  twelve  inches  in  diameter. 
This  opening  could  be  closed  at  will,  by  a  stone  stopper  perforated  with 
small  holes.  A  short  distance  below  the  wells  he  found  one  of  these 
stoppers  which  fitted  neatly  the  larger  capstone  of  one  of  the  wells.  At 
the  time  of  their  discovery  the  depth  of  the  stream  which  flowed  over 
them  was  ten  inches.  Mocking-Bird  informed  him  that  these  were  fish 
traps,  and  that  many  such  could  be  found  in  other  streams,  were  they  not 
so  filled  with  mud  and  stones  as  to  escape  observation  ;  and  also  that 
they  were  constructed  and  used  anciently  for  the  purpose  of  securing  a 
supply  of  fish  for  the  winter.  Large  quantities  of  bait  being  deposited 
in  them  in  the  fall,  the  fish  would  gather  there  in  great  numbers,  when 
the  stopper  would  be  placed  over  the  mouth,  which  prevented  their 
escape,  and  then  they  could  be  taken  out  with  a  small  net  as  desired. 
While  it  is  no  doubt  true  that  the  mound-builders  were  an  agricultural 
people,  it  is  quite  reasonable  to  suppose,  from  the  fact  that  their  most 
extensive  works  are  found  upon  the  shores  of  lakes  and  banks  of  rivers, 
that  fish  formed  no  inconsiderable  item  of  their  bill  of  fare.1 

As  before  stated,  the  historian  of  these  traditions,  after  the  death  of 
Mockinsf-Bird,  proceeded  to  investigate  by  careful  excavation  those 
earthworks  of  which  he  had  previously  made  only  a  superficial  survey, 
especially  those  concerning  which  he  had  received  traditions.  The  first 
group  thus  explored  which  I  notice  is  represented  in  Fig.  2.  It  is 
described  as  being  located  at  the  junction  of  Straddle  Creek  and  Plumb 
river,  in  Carroll  County,  Illinois.  It  is  composed  of  conical  mounds, 
rings  and  semi-circles,  with  diameters  varying  from  twelve  to  twenty-five 
feet.  The  rin<rs  are  about  two  feet  hi<rh,  and  seem  to  have  been  formed 
by  throwing  up  the  earth  from  within,  leaving  the  interior  in  the  form 
of  a  basin. 

The  traditions  concerning  these  works  are  in  substance  that  they  were 


1  Some  writers  have  discredited  the  idea  of  the  artificial  origin  of  these  wells  or  fish- 
traps,  attributing  their  formation  to  the  disintegration  of  the  rocks  in  which  they  occur, 
owing  to  the  unequal  hardness  of  the  strata  of  which  they  are  composed,  etc.  But  it 
would  seem  that  vastly  more  credulity  is  required  to  believe  that  the  ordinary  operation 
of  nature  in  various  parts  of  the  country  would  produce  such  cavities,  from  eight  to 
twelve  feet  in  depth,  with  nice  fitting  covers,  preforated  at  the  center,  than  that  they 
are  the  workmanship  of  intelligent  beings  for  some  special  purpose. 


BURIAL  MOUNDS. 


17 


constructed  by  a  people  who  were  accustomed  to  burn  their  dead,  and 
were  only  partially  occupied.  Each  family  formed  a  circle  sacred  to  its 
own  use.  When  a  member  died,  the  body  was  placed  in  the  family  circle 
and  burned  to  ashes ;  a  thin  covering  of  earth  was  then  sprinkled  over 
the  whole.  This  process  was  repeated  as  often  as  a  death  occurred,  until 
the  inclosure  was  filled.  The  ring  was  then  raised  about  two  feet  and 
again  was  ready  for  further  use.  As  each  additional  elevation  would  of 
necessity  be  less  in  diameter  than  the  preceding,  in  the  end  a  conical 
mound  would  be  the  result.  The  darkest  spots  in  the  engraving 
represent  those  which  are  finished  ;  the  rings,  those  in  various  stages 
of  occupancy  ;  and  the  semi-circles  those  which  were  only  begun.     Similar 


Fig.  2. — Burial  Mounds. 

works  have  been  found  in  the  Ohio  Valley,  in  the  more  northern  States, 
west  of  the  Mississippi  and  in  Michigan.  Upon  excavating  the  more 
finished  mounds  of  the  group  described,  they  were  found  filled  with 
ashes,  mingled  with  charcoal :  some  of  them  to  the  depth  of  twenty 
inches  below  the  surrounding  surface  of  the  soil.  In  this  group  were 
found  two  mounds  much  larger  than  the  others,  (one  is  represented 
in  the  engraving),  shaped  like  the  body  of  a  tortoise,  known  as  battle 
mounds,  and  said  to  contain  the  ashes  of  hundreds  slain  in  battle.  Both 
these  mounds  were  found  to  be  filled  with  ashes  and  charcoal  like  the 
others,  thus  confirming  their  traditional  history. 

About  two  hundred  and  fifty  yards  south  of  these  mounds,  another 
group  of  finished  works  was  found,  where  the  bodies  were  deposited  in 
the  more  usual  manner  without  burning. 


18 


AUCILEOLOGY. 


These  two  modes  of  burial,  so  widely  different  and  in  the  same  locality, 
mark  either  a  sudden  change  of  custom  or  the  presence  of  two  distinct 
races  at  different  periods  of  time.  Tradition  asserts  that  there  was  such 
a  sudden  change  of  mode  of  burial  in  obedience  to  the  command  of  the 
prophets,  for  the  reason  that,  while  the  people  were  burning  the  body  of 
a  °reat  and  good  king,  suddenly  the  sun  (their  chief  deity)  refused  to 
shine,  although  there  was  not  a  cloud  in  the  sky.  This  was  taken  as  a 
sio-n  of  disapprobation  of  the  custom,  which  gradually  ceased  thereafter. 

It  has  been  generally  supposed  that  those  mounds,  which  showed  the 
frequent  or  long-continued  action  of  fire,  were  used  for  sacrificial 
purposes  only.  It  seems  however  more  likely  that  these  cinerulent 
structures  were  simply  the  depositories  of  the  bodies  of  the  dead,  and 
this  the  traditions  affirm. 

b 


Fig.  3. — A  Royal  Cemetery. 

The  second  group  noticed  in  this  connection  is  more  complicated 
(Fig.  3),  and  presents  a  greater  variety  of  forms.  It  is  found  (or  was 
in  1840)  on  the  north  side  of  St.  Peter's  river,  about  sixty  miles  above 
its  junction  with  the  Mississippi,  in  what  was  then  the  Territory  of 
Minnesota. 

It  is  thus  described  :  The  central  embankment,  in  the  form  of  the 
body  of  a  tortoise,  is  forty  feet  in  length,  twenty-seven  in  breadth,  and 
twelve  in  perpendicular  height.     It  is  composed  in  part  of  yellow  clay, 


BUKIAL  MOUNDS.  19 

brought  from  some  distant  place.  The  two  pointed  mounds  north  and 
south  of  this  are  formed  of  pure  red  earth,  covered  with  alluvial  soil. 
Each  is  twenty-seven  feet  in  length  and  six  in  height  at  the  largest  end, 
gradually  narrowing  and  sinking  at  the  top  until  they  terminate  in  a 
point.  The  four  corner  mounds  were  each  twelve  feet  high  and  twenty- 
live  in  diameter  at  the  base.  The  two  long  mounds  on  the  east  and 
west  sides  of  the  group  were  sixty  feet  in  length,  twelve  feet  in  diameter 
at  the  base,  and  eight  feet  in  height.  The  two  mounds  on  the  immediate 
right  and  left  of  the  central  effigy,  were  twelve  feet  long,  four  feet 
high,  and  six  in  breadth.  These  were  composed  of  sand,  mixed  with 
small  bits  of  mica  to  the  depth  of  two  feet,  covered  with  white  clay, 
with  a  thin  layer  of  surface  soil  on  the  top.  The  large  mound  in  the 
center,  south  of  the  effigy,  was  twelve  feet  high,  twenty-seven  in 
diameter,  and  composed  of  a  stratum  of  sand  two  feet  in  depth,  covered 
with  a  mixture  of  sandy  soil  and  blue  clay.  The  similar  work  on  the 
north  of  the  tortoise  was  of  like  formation,  four  feet  high  and  twenty- 
two  feet  in  diameter.  Thirteen  small  mounds  whose  dimensions  are 
not  given,  complete  the  group. 

Only  a  glance  at  this  cluster  of  mounds,  twenty-six  in  number,  present- 
ing such  variety  of  forms  and  peculiar  arrangement,  and  which  must  have 
required  so  much  time  and  labor  for  their  construction,  is  needed  to  con- 
vince the  observer  that  they  were  intended  to  perpetuate  some  history, 
and  that  each  of  the  hieroglyphic  symbols  of  which  the  group  is  composed 
had  its  special  significance,  which  was  well  understood  by  the  builders 
and  their  cotemporaries. 

But  what  was  that  history,  or  what  event  is   recorded  here?     The 
works  themselves  give  no  answer.     Tradition  asserts,  that  this  was  the 
royal  cemetery  of  a  ruler  known  as  the  Black  Tortoise,  and  was  designed 
to  commemorate  the  title  and  dignity  of  a  great  king  or  potentate.     The 
tortoise-shaped    central    mound    (a)   was  his  tomb.      The   four  corner 
mounds  were  called  Mourning  Mounds.     The  two  larger  mounds  (bb) 
directly  north  and  south  of  the   effigy  were  the  burial  places  of  chiefs. 
The  number  interred  in  each  is  recorded  in  the  number  of  small  mounds 
on  each  side  of  them — five  in  the  northern  and  eight  in  the  southern  line. 
The  two  long  embankments  (cc)  at  the  extreme  right  and   left  of  the 
works,  were  known  as  points  of   honor,  and  are  said  never  to  occur 
except  in  connection  with  those  works  which  symbolize  royalty.     The 
two  pointed  mounds  (dd),  and  described  as  twenty-seven  feet  long,  six 
feet  in  width  at  the  larger  end,  tapering  down  from  the  top  and  sides  to 
a  vanishing  point,  are  known  as  mounds  of  extinction,  and  tell  us  that  he 


20 


ARCHAEOLOGY. 


was  the  last  of  his  line.  These  too  are  never  found  alone,  but  always  in 
connection  with  larger  works.  The  mounds  (ee)  on  either  side  of  the 
central  effigy  are  the  burial  places  of  prophets.  In  these  it  will  be 
remembered  small  bits  of  mica  were  found  mingled  with  the  ashes.  The 
presence  of  this  substance  in  a  certain  class  of  mounds,  in  localities  so 
remote  from  each  other,  from  Minnesota  to  the  Scioto  Valley — some- 
times in  large  circular  plates,  but  oftener  in  countless  smaller  fragments, 
has  called  forth  much  speculation  as  to  its  use  by  the  ancient  inhabitants. 
It  has  been  suggested  that  it  may  have  been  used  for  mirrors,  or  again 
for  ornament,  or,  on  account  of  its  preciousness,  as  a  medium  of  com- 
mercial transactions.  But  when  it  is  remembered  that  it  is  never  found 
indiscriminately  with  other  deposits  in  many  mounds  of  the  same  group, 
we  may  safely  conclude  that  it  was  set  apart  for  a  special  use.  Tradition 
says  that  it  was  sacred  to  the  prophets,  and  was  deposited  in  their  tombs 
alone ;— that  they  had  the  mysterious  power  of  calling  tire  from  heaven, 
which  was  distributed  to  the  minor  prophets  by  whom  the  sacred  fires 
were  kept  perpetually  burning;  that  the  tire  used  at  the  annual  feast 
in  their  most  holy  places  was  thus  received  from  the  sun  upon  the 
summit  of  the  sacred  altars.  This  bringing  fire  from  heaven  is  found  in 
classic  stories  and  in  the  traditions  of  many  lands,  as  every  school-boy 

knows.  So  Zoroaster  taught  his 
disciples,  that  the  sacred  fire 
which  he  committed  to  their 
care  had  been  brought  direct 
from  heaven.  "It  is  possible 
that  the  prophets  of  the  ancient 
Americans  were  able  in  some 
manner  to  construct  lenses  from 
plates  of  mica,  of  sufficient  pow- 
er to  ignite  the  fuel  upon  the 
sacrificial  altars."  l  The  Mexi- 
cans in  ancient  times  called  ob- 
sidian "the  shining  god,"  and 
held  it  in  high  estimation. 

Several  works  have  been  ob- 
served of  the  form  shown  in  Figure  4.  The  one  here  represented 
is  described  as  located  on  the  lowlands  of  the  Kickapoo  River  in 
Wisconsin.      The    central   work,    with   radiating   points,    sixty   feet  in 


Fig.  4. 


1  Pidgeon. 


BURIAL  MOUXDS. 


21 


diameter  and  three  feet  in  height.  This  is  inclosed  by  five  crescent- 
shaped  works,  having  an  elevation  of  two  feet,  and  all  presenting 
a  level  surface  at  the  top.  It  is  traditionally  represented  to  have  been 
occupied  only  during  sacrificial  festivities  consequent  upon  the  offering 
of  human  sacrifices  to  the  sun,  which  the  central  mound  was  said  to 
represent.  Upon  excavating,  after  removing  the  soil  from  the  top,  the 
central  portion,  for  a  space  twelve  feet  in  diameter,  is  found  thickly 
studded  with  plates  of  mica  set  in  white  sand  and  blue  clay ;  and,  says 
the  observer  "had  this  surface  soil  been  removed  with  care,  and  the 
stratum  beneath  washed  by  a  few  heavy  showers  of  rain,  under  the  sun's 
rays  it  would  have  presented  no  unapt  symbolical  representation  of  that 
luminary."     The  sacred  Pentagon,  Fig.  5,  is  found  in  close  proximity. 1 

As  before  stated,  no  class  of 
works  has  awaked  more  curiosity, 
or  elicited  more  unsatisfactory  spe- 
culations, than  these  animal  effi- 
gies ;  and  among  these  the  most 
singular  and  enigmatical  are  those 
representing  the  larger  animals, 
and  the  human  form  on  a  gigantic 
scale,  and  generally  with  such  ac- 
curacy of  delineation  as  to  leave 
no  doubt  as  to  what  particular  ani- 
mal was  intended  to  be  represented 
by  the  figure.  Sometimes  these 
huge  representations  of  beasts, 
Fig.  s.-sacred  Pentagon.  birds  and    men    are     grouped    to- 

gether in  such  strange  and  grotesque  combinations  as  to  forbid  all 
attempts  to  discover  the  design  of  the  builders  in  their  erection.  A  few 
of  the  most  common  forms  are  shown  in  the  accompanying  engravings. 

That  the  mastodon  is  intended  by  figure  1  is  conceded  by  all — as 
far  as  known— who  have  described  it.  I  am  not  aware  that  it  has  ever 
been  found  outside  of  Wisconsin.     There    it  frequently    occurs,   either 


1  This  is  represented  here  because  of  its  intimate  relation  to  the  one  just  described, 
which  is  found  associated  with  it.  The  outer  circle  is  twelve  hundred  feet  in  diameter, 
in  the  center  is  the  sacrificial  altar,  upon  which  human  sacrifices  were  said  to  have  been 
offered  twice  a  year.  In  the  spring  the  oldest  man  of  the  nation,  willingly— so  great 
was  the  honor— presented  himself  as  the  victim.  In  the  autumn  a  female  was  sacrificed. 
If  the  day  was  cloudy,  the  offering  was  left  upon  the  altar  of  sacrifice  until  the  sun 
looked  down  upon  it,  which  was  considered  a  sign  that  the  sacrifice  was  accepted.  The 
people  then  repaired  to  the  festival  circle  with  rejoicing,  where  the  feast  was  celebrated 


22  ARCH  OOLOGY. 

alone  or  in  companionship  with  other  mounds.  As  men  in  all  ages,  in 
their  first  attempts  at  pictorial  art,  have  been  accustomed  to  delineate 
only  those  objects  which  were  most  striking  and  with  which  they  were 
most  familiar,  we  may  well  believe  that  the  ancient  Americans  were  not 
unacquainted  with  this  king  of  beasts,  and  that  they  lived  in  those  days 
when  those  gigantic  animals  roamed  over  the  plains  in  vast  numbers, 
whose  skeletons  have  been  so  often  found  in  Missouri. 

The  combined  figures  of  bird  and  beast  as  repres- 
ented at  Fig.  6  are  also  of  frequent  occurrence,  parti- 
culary  in  Wisconsin.  The  one  here  delineated  is  one 
hundred  and  eighty  feet  in  length,  and  forty-four  in  its 
greatest  breadth.  The  whole  is  composed  of  reddish  clay, 
but  covered  to  the  depth  of  twelve  inches  with  a  black 
alluvium.  It  was  designed  to  record  the  change  in 
title  of  a  sovereign  line  of  rulers.  The  head  of  the 
beast  being  merged  in  the  body  of  the  bird  concedes 
to  the  conqueror  the  right  of  dominion.  The  two 
truncated  mounds,  one  on  each  side  of  the  beast,  record 
the  extent  of  his  humiliation.  They  are  altar  mounds,  on 
Bird  arfd  Beast,      which    were    sacrificed    his    descendants    both    male    and 

female. 

The  effigy  shown  in  Fig.  7  is  unmistakably  human.  It  memorializes  a 
hereditary  chief  of  royal  line,  but  who,  according  to  the  record,  could 
not  yet  have  been  a  sovereign  ruler,  as  no  mound  of  honor  indicating  that 
condition  is  found  in  connection  with  it.  He  was  thus  memorialized 
because  he  fell  in  battle,  and  with  him  his  son,  whose  memory  is  perpet- 
uated in  the  truncated  mound  between  his  feet. 

The  amalgamation  group  (Fig.  8)  is  more  complicated  and  enig- 
matical, and  but  for  the  traditions  concerning  it  would  doubtless  always 
remain  so.  The  beast  is  one  hundred  and  eighty  feet  in  length  ;  the 
human  effigy  perpendicular  to  it  is  one  hundred  and  sixty.  On  either 
side  of  the  horizontal  figure  is  a  truncated  work  eighteen  feet  in  diameter 
and  six  feet  in  height.  The  summits  of  both  are  flat.  The  representations 
of  horns,  which  are  very  distinct,  are  of  different  dimensions.  The 
main  stem  of  the  front  horn  is  eighteen  feet  in  length.  The  one 
which  inclines  backward  is  twelve,  the  longest  antlers  are  six,  and 
the  shortest  three  feet  in  length.  At  the  foot  of  the  human  effigy 
is  attached  an  embankment  running  parallel  with  the  horizontal  figure, 
eighty  feet  in  length,  twenty-seven  in  diameter  and  six  in  height.  On  a 
line  with  this  is  a  series  of  conical    mounds,  the  largest  of  which  is  also 


SACRIFICIAL  AND  HISTORICAL  MOUNDS. 


23 


twenty-seven  feet  in  diameter  and  six  in 

height.     From  this  the  others  diminish  on 

either  side  and  terminate  in  mounds  eigh- 

teen  feet  in  diameter  and  three  in  height. 

The  group   thus  described  is  represented 

to  have  been  erected  to  commemorate  an 

important    event    in    the  history  of  two 

friendly  nations,  which  were   once  great 

and  powerful,  but  now  reduced  by  long- 
continued  wars  against  a  common  foe  ;  and 

being:  now   no  longer  able  to  maintain  a 

separate  national  existence,  they  resolved 

to  unite  their  forces  under  one  title   and 

sovereign.     One  was  known   as   the    Elk 

nation,  the  other  was  the  Buffalo.      This 

work  was  designed  as  a  public  record  and 

seal  of  their  amalgamation.     This  fact  is 

plainly  expressed  by  the  union  of  the  head 

of    the  Buffalo  with  that    of  the    human 

effig\'  representing  the  sovereign    of    the 

Elk  nation,  and  also  by  the  joining  of  the 

hand  of  the  one  with  the  foot  of  the  other. 

Horns    appended   to    effigies    represent    warriors ;    their   length    and 

number  the  relative  power  of  the  two  nations  at  the  time  of  their  union. 

The    Buffalo  was  therefore    manifestly  recorded    as  the  weaker  of  the 

two,  as  his  antlers 
are  seen  to  be 
smaller  and  in  a  de- 
clining position.  The 
fact  is  also  here  re- 
corded that,  when 
the  union  was  fully 
consummated  the  na- 
tionality of  the  Buf- 
falo became  extinct. 
This  is  shown  by 
the  presence  of   the 

Fig.  8. — Amalgamation  Group.  -i         /-  • 

mound  of  extinction 
— before   described — in  connection    with    the    Buffalo    and    terminating 

The   two  truncated  mounds    on     either   side    of  the 


Fig.  7. — Human-Shaped  Mound. 


at  his  hind  feet. 


24  ARCHAEOLOGY. 

animal  effigy  are  sacrificial  altars  upon  which  appropriate  sacrifices 
were  offered,  not  only  at  the  time  of  the  erection  of  the  works, 
but  annually  thereafter  ;  the  fires  of  which  were  kept  burning 
until  the  smoke  from  both  united  in  one  column  above  the 
mound.  This  annual  sacrifice  symbolized  the  renewal  of  the  covenant 
entered  into  when  the  compact  was  made.  The  seven  truncated  mounds 
in  a  line  with  the  embankment  upon  which  the  human  figure  stands, 
(and  known  as  a  symbol  of  nationality)  are  matrimonial  memorials,  and 
record  the  international  marriages  of  seven  chiefs  which  occurred  during 
the  construction  of  the  work,  and  which  were  also  a  further  ratification 
of  the  national  union  here  perpetuated.  Upon  excavating  the  altars, 
after  the  alluvial  soil  was  removed,  a  stratum  of  burned  earth  mingled 
with  ashes  and  charcoal  was  disclosed,  to  the  depth  of  fourteen  inches. 
This  group  was  found  upon  the  northern  high  land  of  the  Wisconsin 
River,  about  fifty  miles  from  its  junction  with  the  Mississippi. 

In  that  part  of  the  work  where  the  heads  of  the  two  efhgies  unite,  an 
oak  was  standing  at  the  time  of  its  first  examination.  Upon  a  second 
visit  it  was  not  there,  but  the  stump  showed  by  its  concentric  annual 
rino-s  of  growth  that  it  was  four  hundred  and  twenty-four  years  old. 
Works  of  this  description,  which  occur  so  frequently  in  Wisconsin,  have 
also  been  observed  in  Northern  Illinois. 


Lance  Head.. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

The  Archjeological  Monuments  of  Missouri.— Their  Rapid  Destruction.— Sites  op 
Towns  and  Cities.— The  Laboks  of  H.  M.  Brackenridge.— The  Big  Mound  at  St. 
Louis.— Col.  O'Fallon's  Residence  Erected  on  an  Ancient  Mound.— The  Mounds 
in  Forest  Park.— Evidences  of  a  Vast  Population.— New  Madrid  its  Center.— 
Description  of  Various  Works. 

The  preceding  remarks  upon  the  general  subject  of  Archaeology,  with 
the  few  notices  of  traditions  concerning  the  ancient  inhabitants  of 
America,  are  all  that  the  limits  of  this  article  will  permit,  as  well  as  all 
which  our  present  purpose  demands.  Nor  has  it  seemed  necessaiy  to 
describe  those  extensive  and  imposing  works,  which  are  found  scattered 
through  the  Central  States,  from  the  lakes  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and 
especially  in  the  Ohio  Valley,  consisting  of  walled  towns,  embankments 
enclosing  large  areas  of  land,  in  squares,  circles,  octagons  and  the  like, 
associated  with  mounds  of  prodigious  size ;  for  these  have  been  so 
often  described  and  delineated  that  whatever  comparison  of  them  with 
the  monuments  of  Missouri  may  be  thought  desirable  may  be  readily 
accomplished  by  reference  to  the  works  of  those  authors,  who  have 
published  so  many  valuable  descriptions  of  these  antiquities,  and  which 
are  to  be  found  in  almost  every  public  library. 

That  Missouri  was  once  the  home  of  a  vast  population  composed  of 
tribes  who  had  fixed  habitations,  dwelt  in  large  towns,  practiced  agricul- 
ture on  an  extended  scale,  with  a  good  degree  of  method  and  skill ;  who 
had  also  a  well-organized  system  of  religious  rites  and  worship,  and 
whose  aesthetic  tastes  were  far  in  advance  of  the  savage  tribes  who 
ronmed  over  her  prairies  and  hill  ranges  when  her  great  rivers  were  first 
navigated  by  the  white  men,  is,  I  am  confident,  no  difficult  matter  to  prove. 
Says  Mr.  H.  M.  Brackenridge,  who  was  an  extensive  traveler,  and  a 
man  of  excellent  judgment,  in  speaking  of  the  ancient  works  in  the 
Mississippi  Valley :  "It  is  worthy  of  observation,  that  all  these  vestiges 
invariably  occupy  the  most  eligible  situations  for  towns  or  settlements  ; 
and  on  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  they  are  most  numerous  and  consid- 
erable. There  is  not  a  rising  town,  or  a  farm  of  an  eligible  situation,  in 
whose  vicinity  some  of  them  may  not  be  found.  I  have  heard  a 
surveyor  of  the  public  lands  observe,  that  wherever  any  of  these 
remains  were  met  with,  he  was  sure  to  find  an  extensive  body  of  fertile 
land." 

Although,  for  more  than  three-quarters  of  a  century  since  that  time, 


26  ARCHEOLOGY. 

the  waves  of  an  advancing  civilization  and  the  hand  of  agriculture  have 
passed  over  them  and  utterly  destroyed  vast  numbers,  including  many 
of  the  most  remarkable  ones,  which  arrested  the  attention  of  every 
beholder, — still,  any  one  at  all  familiar  with  those  which  now  remain 
would  write  the  same  things  to-day.  The  name  of  the  city  of  St.  Louis 
was  once  Mound  City,  called  so  on  accouut  of  the  number  and  size  of 
those  ancient  works  which  once  stood  upon  her  present  site.  The  larger 
of  them  are  all  demolished,  while  the  few  which  yet  remain  are  so  small 
that  they  would  hardly  be  noticed  save  by  the  eye  of  a  practical  observer. 
The  same  may  be  said  of  nearly  all  which  once  crowned  the  terraces  of 
the  Mississippi  along  her  eastern  border,  and  those  of  the  Missouri  and 
her  tributaries. 

Notwithstanding  all  this  widespread  demolition  and  obliteration,  there 
is  doubtless  now  no  richer  field  for  archaeological  research  in  the  great 
basin  of  the  Mississippi  than  is  to  be  found  in  the  State  of  Missouri. 
As  has  been  already  stated,  the  most  important  works  are  found 
located  in  the  vicinity  of  extensive  areas  of  fertile  lands,  and  upon  the 
most  eligible  sites  for  towns  and  cities.  The  same  locations  would 
naturally  be  the  first  to  be  occupied  by  the  pioneer  settlements  of  our 
own  times,  and  these  aboriginal  remains  would  be  the  first  to  be  oblite- 
rated. It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that  the  earlier  notices  of  the 
ancient  monuments  of  this  valley  are  so  meagre  and  unsatisfactory, 
especially  when  we  remember  the  peculiar  vicissitudes  of  a  frontier  life, 
which  necessitated  unceasing  toil  and  eternal  vigilance :  continually  men- 
aced, as  the  early  settlements  generally  were,  by  a  wily,  savage  foe. 

It  should  also  be  remembered  that  until  quite  recently  the  prevailing 
opinion  concerning  mounds  and  embankments  was  that  they  were  the 
work  of  the  red  men,  and  to  this  day  they  are  known  among  the  masses 
as  Indian  mounds. 

Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  multitudes  have  been  destroyed,  there 
still  remain  so  many  vestiges  of  an  ancient  race — not  only  upon  the 
alluvial  plains  of  our  larger  rivers,  but  also  in  the  interior  valleys, 
watered  by  smaller  streams  and  rivulets,  and  also  upon  the  sterile  slopes 
and  summits  even  of  the  Ozarks — that  Missouri  still  presents  a  most 
inviting  field  for  the  labors  of  the  archaeologist.  A  proper  examina- 
tion and  description  of  them  all  would  involve  no  inconsiderable 
expenditure  of  time  and  money,  and  require  a  volume  for  their 
elucidation.  It  cannot  therefore  be  expected  that  we  can  do  more 
in  this  article  than  to  describe  the  different  classes  of  those  remains — 
with    their  most  prominent  characteristics — which  are  best  known  and 


ARCHAEOLOGICAL  MONUMENTS  OF  MISSOURI. 


27 


■which  have  been  the  most  thoroughly  explored.  In  carrying  out  this 
design,  it  will  perhaps  best  serve  our  purpose  in  the  way  of  method 
and  convenience  to  consider  them  under  the  following  general  divisions  : 
1st,  Sites  of  towns  or  cities.  2d,  Burial  mounds,  caves  and  artificial 
caverns.  3d,  Sacrificial  or  temple  mounds.  4th,  Garden  mounds. 
5th,  Miscellaneous  works.      6th,    Pottery;  and  7th,  Crania. 

/. — Sites  of  Towns  or  Cities. —  The  early  French  explorers  of  the 
Mississippi  and  Missouri  rivers,  and  the  territories  through  which  they 
flow,  seem  to  have  taken  no  notice  of  the  ancient  monuments  along  their 
course  ;  or  if  they  did,  they  doubtless  ascribed  their  origin  to  the  red 
men,  who  were  found  occupying,  in  some  instances  works  of  similar 
construction. 

But  when  permanent  settlements  had  been  established  along  their 
banks,  with  the  consequent  increase  of  travel,  these  works  ere  long 
attracted  the  attention  of  the  historian,  and  awakened  an  interest  which 
resulted  in  their  more  careful  examination.  The  early  writers,  as  they 
became  familiar  with  the  habits  and  social  condition  of  the  Indians,  and 
in  view  of  the  magnitude  of  the  structures  they  so  frequently  met  with, 
as  well  as  the  skill  and  herculean  labors  required  for  their  erection,  make 
frequent  mention  of  their  doubts  as  to  the  ability  of  the  Indians  to  erect 
monuments  of  such  prodigious  proportions.  And  not  until  St.  Louis 
became  an  incorporated  town,  and  the  capital  of  that  vast  extent  of 
territory  then  known  as  Upper  Louisiana,  do  we  find  any  descriptive 
accounts  of  the  ancient  works  which  at  that  time  occupied  the  terraces 
upoif  which  this  great  city  now  stands. 

Notwithstanding  the  meager  and  unsatisfactory  character  of  the 
accounts  which  have  been  preserved,  still,  we  are  thankful  for  the  crumbs 
of  information  the  early  observers  have  left  us,  and  will  endeavor  to 
make  the  most  of  them. 

Mr.  H.  M.  Brackenridge, x  writing  in   the  year  1811,  says:     "I  have 


1  The  work  of  this  author  (  "  Views  of  Louisiana  "  )  seems  to  have  been  the  perennial 
fountain  from  whence  many  subsequent  writers  upon  American  Archaeology,  both  in 
this  country  and  in  Europe,  have  drawn  much  of  their  inspiration  and  many  of  the 
facts  and  germinal  suggestions  which  they  have  elaborated  with  extended  speculations, 
and  frequently  without  any  mention  of  their  obligation  to  this  writer  for  the  facts  and 
suggestions  which  have  been  so  freely  made  use  of.  Mr.  Brackenridge,  I  believe,  was 
the  first  American  author  who  alludes  to  the  statements  of  Plato  concerning  a 
people  who  had  come  from  an  island  in  the  Atlantic,  in  great  numbers,  and  overran 
Europe  and  Asia,  and  known  as  the  Atlantides,  which  island  was  said  to  have  been  sunk 
by  an  earthquake  9000  years  before  his  time.  He  notes,  also,  a  similar  tradition  among 
the  Romans,  and  thinks  it  possible  America  may  have  been  referred  to. 


28  ARCHEOLOGY. 

frequently  examined  the  mounds  at  St.  Louis.  They  are  situated  on  the 
second  bank,  just  above  the  town,  and  disposed  in  a  singular  manner ; 
there  are  nine  in  all,  and  form  the  three  sides  of  a  parallelogram,  the 
open  side  towards  the  country  being  protected,  however,  by  three 
smaller  mounds,  placed  in  a  circular  manner.  The  space  inclosed  is 
about  three  hundred  yards  in  length  and  two  hundred  in  breadth. 
About  six  hundred  yards  above  these  is  a  single  mound,  with  a  broad 
stage  on  the  river  side ;  it  is  thirty  feet  in  height,  and  one  hundred  and 
fifty  in  length  ;  the  top  is  a  mere  ridge  of  five  or  six  feet  wide.  Below  the 
first  mounds  there  is  a  curious  work  called  the  Falling  Garden.  Advant- 
age is  taken  of  the  second  bank,  nearly  fifty  feet  in  height  at  this  place, 
and  three  regular  stages  or  steps  are  formed  by  earth  brought  from  a 
distance.  This  work  is  much  admired — it  suggests  the  idea  of  a  place 
of  assembty  for  the  purpose  of  counselling  on  public  occasions." 

Accompanying  the  foregoing  description  is  a  simple  diagram  which, 
as  it  does  not  seem  to  be  the  result  of  any  actual  survey,  and  therefore 
of  no  scientific  value,  need  not  be  reproduced  in  this  connection. 

Dr.  Beck,  who  noticed  them  twelve  years  afterwards,  presents  in  his 
work  another  diagram,  which  seems  to  have  been  the  result  of  more 
careful  observation,  although  in  this,  however,  one  of  the  nine,  and  the 
three  smaller  mounds  described  by  Mr.  Brackenridge  as  protecting  the 
side  of  the  parallelogram  opening  towards  the  country,  are  wanting. 
From  all  the  information  I  can  gather,  I  believe  the  following  plan  will 
present  the  true  relation  of  the  mounds  here  described : 


Diagram  of  St.   Louis  Mounds. 


THE  BIG  MOUND  AT  ST.  LOUIS.  29 

One  of  the  above  group  undoubtedly  represents  the  old  landmark 
known  as  the  Big  Mound,  (  a  representation  of  which  as  it  appeared  at  the 
time  of  its  removal,  faces  the  first  page  of  the  present  volume  ),  which 
once  stood  at  the  corner  of  Mound  street  and  Broadway,  but  which  was 
entirely  demolished  in  1869.  This  I  suppose  to  have  been  the  terraced 
mound,  represented  by  Mr.  Brackenridge  to  have  been  located  six  hun- 
dred yards  north  of  the  main  group.  The  Big  Mound  is  known  to  have 
been  beautifully  terraced,  and  nothing  of  the  kind  is  mentioned  in  con- 
nection with  those  constituting  the  parallelogram.  Nor  is  the  Falling 
Garden  spoken  of  as  a  mound,  but  only  as  a  terraced  bank.  For  these 
and  other  reasons  which  need  not  be  dwelt  upon,  after  much  reflection, 
I  am  persuaded  that  the  terraced  mound,  afterwards  known  as  the  Big 
Mound,  was  the  last  to  disappear  before  the  encroachments  of  the 
rapidly-growing  city.  Be  this  as  it  may,  this  most  interesting  work  will 
be  particularly  described  under  the  more  appropriate  head  of  Sepulchral 
Caverns,  when  I  shall  be  able  to  speak  with  more  confidence,  as  I  shall 
give  there  the  result  of  my  own  observations.  There  wrere  formerly 
many  other  mounds  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  St.  Louis,  rivaling  in 
magnitude  and  interest  those  described  by  the  authors  just  quoted,  but 
which  escaped  their  notice  In  fact,  the  second  terrace  of  the  Mississippi, 
upon  almost  every  available  commanding  point  of  elevation,  was  finished 
with  them.  Nineteen  years  ago,  in  a  conversation  with  the  late  Col.  John 
O'Fallon,  he  informed  me  that  his  family  residence  on  the  Bellefontaine 
road  was  erected  upon  one  of  those  ancient  mounds.  It  must  have  been 
very  large,  although  I  do  not  recall  the  dimensions.  He  stated,  further, 
that  as  the  summit  was  being  leveled,  preparatory  to  building,  human 
bones  by  the  cart-load  were  disclosed,  along  writh  stone  axes  and  arrow- 
heads and  the  like,  without  number.  He  then  led  me  to  the  forest  west 
of  his  dwelling,  and  called  my  attention  to  the  small  hillocks  which 
abounded  there  in  prodigious  numbers,  which  he  conjectured  were  the 
residence  sites  of  former  inhabitants,  because  of  their  regularity,  and 
from  the  fact  that  upon  excavating  them  they  disclosed  ashes  and 
charcoal. 

Still  farther  north,  upon  the  highest  points  of  the  second  terrace,  I 
have  traced  the  remains  of  others  which  must  have  been  quite  imposing 
before  they  were  subjected  to  the  leveling  influence  of  agriculture. 
In  Forest  Park,  a  few  miles  west  of  the  city,  there  is  a  small  group  of 
mounds  which  the  park  commissioners,  I  am  happy  to  know,  have 
resolved  to  preserve.  It  is  a  pity  that  none  of  the  larger  ones  have  been 
spared,  to  stand  hereafter  as  the  memorials  of  a  people  whose  origin  is 


30 


AECILEOLOGY. 


hid  in  the  night  of  oblivion.  But  let  them  remain,  such  as  they  are,  and 
when  future  generations  shall  throng  the  green  groves  and  shady  walks 
of  that  beautiful  garden  of  their  great  city,  these  shall  recall  the  fainting 
echoes  of  another  race,  whose  homes  once  clustered,  in  days  long  gone, 
upon  the  banks  of  that  great  river  where  a  statelier — can  we  say  happier 
— city  stands  to-day. 

The  works  thus  briefly  noticed  are  only  a  few  of  the  great  group  of 
large  circumference,  of  which  that  king  of  mounds,  on  the  fertile  plains 
across  the  river,  known  as  Monk's  Mound,  was  the  radiating  center. 
That  high  place  was  a  temple  mound — the  holy  mountain  for  this  whole 
region,  doubtless, — and  the  smoke  which  ascended  from  the  perpetual 
fire  of  its  sacred  altar  could  be  seen  for  many  miles  on  every  side. 

But  while  our  business  now  is  with  the  ancient  people  of  Missouri,  it 
should  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  imaginary  lines  which  divide  us  into 
States  had  no  existence  in  those  other  times,  when  a  mighty  people 
dwelt  upon  either  side  of  the  Mississippi,  outnumbering  far,  perhaps, 
the  present  occupants ;  who  were  homogeneous  in  their  commercial 
pursuits,  arts  and  worship.  They  traded  with  the  nations  who  dwelt  by 
the  sea,  and  brought  from  thence  the  shells  and  pearls  of  the  ocean,  and 
left  them  in  their  tombs,  along  with  the  precious  wares  of  their  own 
handicraft,  for  our  admiration  and  instruction. 

But  before  we  leave  St.  Louis,  another  work  demands  a  notice, 
which  the  following  (Fig.  9),  will  illustrate. 

This  class  of  works 
appears  frequently  in  Iowa, 
but  was  formerly  found  in 
greatest  numbers  in  Mis- 
souri. The  one  figured 
here  was  located  on  Root 
River,  about  twenty  miles 
west  of  the  Mississippi. 
The  central  mound  is  repre- 
sented as  being  thirty-six 
feet  in  diameter,  and 
twelve  feet  in  height.  The 
circle  inclosing  it  was 
nearly  obliterated.  The 
long  embankments  which 
form  the  sides  of  the  triangle  were  each  one  hundred  and  forty- 
four   feet   in    length,  and    respectively    three,    four    and    five    feet   in 


Fig.  9. —  Historical  Mound. 


EVIDENCES  OF  A  VAST  POPULATION.  31 

height,  and  twelve  feet  in  diameter ;  and  what  is  singular,  the  sum 
of  the  heights  of  the  embankments  equals  the  vertical  height  of  the 
central  mound,  and  these  two  amounts  multiplied  together,  give  the 
exact  length  of  the  embankments.  Sometimes  works  of  this  description 
arc  built  in  the  form  of  a  square,  with  four  embankments ;  but  of 
whatever  form,  it  is  stated  that  the  same  relation  of  the  sum  of  the 
heights  of  all  the  embankments  to  the  height  of  the  central  mound 
is  always  presented,  and  the  product  of  these  gives  the  length  of  the 
embankments. 

A  group  precisely  similar  to  the  one  just  described,  and  of  large 
dimensions,  once  stood  near  the  village  of  St.  Louis.  Its  precise 
location  cannot  be  learned,  as  it  was  demolished  somewhere  between  the 
3-ears  1835-40.  This  class  of  mounds  will  be  further  noticed  under  the 
head  of  Miscellaneous  Works. 

The  evidences  of  a  dense  pre-historic  population  in  Missouri  are  no- 
where so  abundant  as  in  the  southeastern  counties  of  the  State.  These 
consist  of  mounds  of  various  dimensions  and  forms,  sometimes  isolated,  but 
oftener  in  groups  of  peculiar  arrangement ;  also  embankments  and  walls  of 
earth  inclosing  large  and  small  areas,  in  which  may  be  traced  the  lines 
of  streets — if  such  they  may  be  called — of  a  village  or  city,  and 
numberless  sites  of  former  residences.  One  of  the  largest  mounds  in 
this  region,  is  about  four  miles  from  New  Madrid,  and,  as  described  in 
1811,  is  twelve  hundred  feet  in  circumference,  forty  feet  high  and 
surrounded  by  a  ditch,  live  feet  deep  and  ten  feet  in  width.  New 
Madrid  was  unquestionably  once  the  great  metropolis  of  a  vast  popula- 
tion, the  remains  of  whose  villages  are  everywhere  met  with,  upon  the 
banks  of  the  numerous  bayous  which  abound  in  the  several  counties  in 
this  portion  of  the  State.  For  the  reason  before  mentioned,  one  group 
only  can  be  particularly  described. 

The  one  selected  is  situated  upon  Bayou  St.  John,  about  eighteen 
miles  from  the  town  of  New  Madrid.  The  bayou  at  this  point  is  one 
mile  and  a  half  in  width  ;  its  whole  length  may  be  stated  in  round  numbers 
to  be  about  seventy-five  miles.  While,  in  the  notices  of  the  earlier 
travelers,  it  is  described  as  a  lake  with  a  clear,  sandy  bottom,  it  is  now 
a  sluggish  swamp,  filled  to  a  great  extent  with  cypress  trees. 

Upon  the  western  bank  of  the  bayou  the  works  to  be  described 
are  located.  They  consist  of  inclosures,  large  and  small  conical  and 
truncated  mounds  in  great  numbers,  and  countless  residence  sites  of 
the  ancient  inhabitants.  From  the  level  of  the  bayou  to  the  prairie 
land   above,    the  ascent  is  by  a  gradual  slope  to  a  vertical  height  of 


32  AECH^EOLOGY. 

fifteen  feet.  Upon  this  belt  of  sloping  ground,  now  covered  with  a 
heavy  growth  of  timber,  the  works  are  most  numerous  ;  while  from  its 
edge,  westward,  the  level  prairie  ( that  is,  the  alluvial  plain  of  tho 
Mississippi)  has  been  under  cultivation  for  sixty  or  seventy  years. 
Here,  including  forty  acres  of  the  cultivated  field  and  ten  of  the  sloping 
timber  belt,  is  an  area  of  about  fifty  acres,  enclosed  by  earthen  Avails 
which  may  be  distinctly  traced  for  several  hundred  feet,  but  gradually 
disappear  on  the  western  side,  having  been  nearly  obliterated  by  the 
long  cultivation  of  the  field.  Where  it  is  best  preserved  in  the  timbered 
land,  its  height  was  found  to  be  from  three  to  five  feet,  and  fifteen  feet 
wide  at  the  base.  1  In  the  centre  of  the  western  side  of  the  enclosure 
and  close  to  the  wall,  is  a  mound  of  oblong  shape,  three  hundred  feet  in 
length  at  the  base,  and  at  its  northern  end  one  hundred  feet  wide,  and 
twenty  feet  high  at  the  present  time,  as  near  as  could  be  estimated  by 
careful  stepping.  The  top  of  it  slopes  gradually  to  the  south,  and 
although  the  plow  has  passed  up  and  down  its  sides  for  sixty  years,  still 
on  its  eastern  side  may  be  distinctly  seen  the  evidences  of  a  graded  way 
to  its  summit.  Close  to  its  northeastern  side,  where  the  mound  is 
widest,  is  a  deep  depression  in  the  field,  about  ten  feet  in  diameter. 
Mr.  Win.  M.  Murphy,  a  farmer  who  has  long  resided  in  the  neighbor- 
hood, told  me  that  when  he  first  saw  it  he  could  not  get  in  and  out  of  it 
without  a  ladder,  and  that  it  had  since  been  nearly  filled  up  by  the 
tillers  of  the  soil  with  stumps,  logs  and  earth.  In  the  centre  of  the 
enclosure  stands  a  circular  mound  seventy-five  feet  in  diameter,  and 
also  twenty  feet  high,  which  upon  examination  disclosed  nothing  but 
broken  pottery.  It  belongs  to  that  class  usually  termed  residence 
mounds.  The  view  from  its  summit  towards  the  west  and  south 
commands  a  prospect  several  miles  in  extent ;  on  the  north  the  view  is 
cut  off  by  a  heavy  growth  of  timber,  and  on  the  east  by  the  cj^press 
swamp.  In  a  direct  line  with  the  two  mounds  thus  described,  partly 
upon  the  edge  of  the  cultivated  field  and  partly  upon  the  declivity  which 
descends  toward  the  swamp,  in  the  midst  of  a  group  of  smaller  works, 
stands  a  large  burial  mound,  twelve  to  fifteen  feet  in  height,  and 
one  hundred  feet  in  diameter.  Its  original  height  could  only  be 
conjectured,  as  it  has  long  been  occupied  as  a  residence  site  by  the 
present  inhabitants.  The  ruins  of  a  log  house  are  still  standing  upon 
its  summit.     It  has  been  the  sepulchre  of  many  hundreds,  perhaps  a 


1  It  will  readily  be  perceived  that  absolute  accuracy  of  measurement  would  be  impossible, 
where  the  ground  has  been  so  much  disturbed  by  cultivation. 


Small  vessels  of  Pottery,  Stone  Pipe,  Stone  Implements  and  discoidal  Stone  from  New  Madrid,  Mo. 


34  AECH^OLOGY. 

« 

thousand  individuals.  The  manner  of  interment,  as  far  as  my  own 
observations  extended,  was  to  place  the  corpse  upon  the  back,  with  the 
head  towards  the  centre  of  the  mound  ;  the  vacant  space  between  each 
deposit  being  generally  two  or  three  feet.  When  the  inner  circle  was 
full,  another  would  be  formed  outside  of  it.  In  two  burial  mounds  in 
this  region,  which  were  only  from  three  to  five  feet  in  height,  and  fifty 
or  sixty  feet  in  diameter,  I  found  this  process  of  burial  continued  far 
beyond  the  circumference  of  the  mound  ;  in  which  cases  the  graves  had 
been  dug  in  the  natural  bed  of  the  plain  upon  which  the  mound  was 
erected,  and  were  generally  from  three  to  four  feet  in  depth.  The  kind 
of  pottery  found  in  these  is  precisely  similar  to  that  taken  from  the 
centre  of  the  mound,  and  was  always  in  the  same  relative  position  to  the 
skeleton.  Three  vessels  were  usually  found  with  each  individual.  Two 
were  water  jugs,  and  placed  on  each  side  of  the  head;  the  other,  a 
receptacle  for  food,  rested  upon  the  side  of  the  chest,  and  was  kept 
in  place  by  the  angle  of  the  arms,  which  were  folded  across  the  breast. 
These  vessels  will  be  more  particularly  described  hereafter. 

Within  the  enclosure  before  described,  beginning  near  the  margin  of 
the  bayou,  extending  up  the  side  of  the  declivity,  around  the  burial 
mound,  and  continuing  quite  a  distance  into  the  inclosure,  are  great 
numbers  of  depressions,  or  shallow  pits  in  the  soil,  from  one  to  three 
feet  in  depth  and  from  fifteen  to  thirty  in  diameter ;  sometimes  in  par- 
allel rows,  aud  usually  about  thirty  feet  from  centre  to  centre.  In  many 
of  these,  forest  trees  of  large  size  are  still  growing,  and  others  equally 
large  are  lying  upon  the  ground  in  various  stages  of  decay.  Upon 
disro-ino:  into  them,  almost  every  shovelful  of  earth  disclosed  pieces  of 
broken  pottery ;  many  of  these  fragments  indicated  vessels  of  large  size 
which  must  have  had  a  capacity  of  from  ten  to  fifteen  gallons.  Upon 
joining  the  fragments  together,  the  mouths  or  openings  were  found  to 
vary  from  three  to  twelve  inches  in  diameter.  They  were  doubtless 
stationary  receptacles  of  food  or  water,  as  they  were  so  thin  that  it 
would  hardly  seem  possible  they  could  be  moved,  when  filled,  without 
breaking.  In  many  of  these  depressions  were  observed  large  rough 
masses  of  burnt  clay,  of  the  color  of  common  brick,  full  of  irregular 
and  transverse  holes,  which  seem  to  indicate,  that,  before  it  was  burned, 
the  desired  form  of  a  chimney,  or  oven,  had  been  rudely  made  out,  by 
intertwining  sticks,  twigs  and  grass,  and  the  whole  plastered  inside  and 
out  with  moist  clay,  to  the  thickness  of  several  inches,  and  theu  burned 
until  it  became  red  and  nearly  as  hard  as  the  bricks  now  in  use.  At  the 
depth  of  about  two  feet,  at  the  bottom  of  all  which  were  examined,  what 


THE  NEW  MADBID  MOUNDS.  35 

seemed  to  have  been  a  fire-place  was  disclosed.  The  earth  was  also 
burned,  so  as  to  present  the  color  and  hardness  of  the  fragments  of  brick, 
to  the  depth  of  several  inches.  Along  with  the  broken  pottery  were 
found,  quite  often,  fragments  of  sandstone  of  various  sizes,  the  larger 
pieces  with  concave  surfaces,  and  all  showing  that  they  had  been  used  for 
polishing  or  sharpening  purposes,  especially  the  smaller  ones,  which  are 
covered  with  small  grooves  one-eighth  of  an  inch  deep  across  the  whole 
length  and  width,  and  at  various  angles  with  each  other,  as  though  they 
had  lono-  been  used  for  sharpening  some  small  metallic  instrument  or 
graver's  tool. 


Water  Jugs  and  Food  Vessel. 

Another  interesting  and  suggestive  feature  of  these  works  is  worthy  of 
notice.  Along  the  shore  of  the  bayou,  in  front  of  the  enclosure,  small 
tongues  of  land  have  been  carried  out  into  the  water,  from  fifteen  to 
thirty  feet  in  length  by  ten  to  fifteen  in  width,  with  open  spaces  between, 
which,  small  as  they  are,  forcibly  remind  one  of  the  wharves  of  a  sea- 
port town.  The  cypress  trees  grow  very  thickly  in  all  the  little  bays 
thus  formed,  and  the  irregular,  yet  methodical,  outline  of  the  forest, 
winding  in  and  out,  close  to  the  shore  of  these  tongues  of  land,  is  so 
marked  as  to  remove  all  doubt  as  to  their  artificial  origin.  Although  the 
channel  of  the  Mississippi  is  now  from  fifteen  to  eighteen  miles  east  of 
this  point,  there  is  no  question  that  this  long  bayou  was  one  of  its  ancient 
beds.  It  is  well  known  that  at  New  Madrid  the  river  has  receded  at  the 
rate  of  one  mile  in  seventy  years.  With  the  supposition  that  its  recession 
has  been  uniform,  at  this  rate  nearly  a  thousand  years  must  have  passed 
since  the  Mississippi  deserted  the  banks  upon  which  these  works  are 
located.  But  this,  could  it  be  proven,  would  give  us  no  positive  testi- 
mony concerning  their  age.     When  the  river  changed  its  course,  a  lake 


36 


AECH^OLOGY. 


took  its  place.  The  change  therefore  must  have  been  somewhat  sudden, 
for  according  to  its  prevailing  habits,  while  it  wears  away  the  shore  upon 
one  side  it  leaves  a  corresponding  deposit  of  alluvium  upon  the  other. 

The  numerous  miniature  wharves  would  suggest  that  the  inhabitants 
were  fishermen  and  had  plenty  of  boats  of  some  sort,  which  being  so, 
these  waters  must  have  been  navigable  and  not  filled  up  as  now  with  an 
almost  impenetrable  cypress  forest. 

While  it  is  true  that  the  most  im- 
portant wrorks  are  all  situated  upon  the 
high  ground,  fifteen  feet  above  the  water 
level,  some  of  the  smaller  ones  are 
located  upon  the  intermediate  declivity, 
and  near  the  shore  of  the  bayou,  as  also 
some  of  the  residence  sites. 

If  we  assume   their  occupancy  to  have 
been  contemporaneous  with  the  presence 
of    the   river,  they    would   be  subject  to 
overflow    by   the    annual    floods,   and  the 
Large  water  vessel.  wharves  would  be  swept  away.     It  seem- 

probable  therefore  that  the  time  when  they  were  occupied  was  long 
subsequent  to  the  change  in  the  course  of  the  river.  The  idea  of  the  great 
antiquity  of  these  works,  entertained  when  I  made  the  report  of  their 
examination,  to  the  St.  Louis  Academy  of  Science,  I  confess  has  since  been 
somewhat  shaken,  the  reasons  for  which  may  appear  as  we  proceed.  I  am 
reminded  however  that,  for  the  work  of  which  these  are  the  initial 
chapters,  a  picturesque  and,  so  to  speak,  a  topographical  description 
of  the  ancient  monuments  of  Missouri  is  desired,  rather  than  a  dry 
detail  of  facts  with  extended  generalizations.  Considerations  therefore 
which  might  otherwise  be  appropriate  in  this  connection  will  be  reserved 
for  a  more  fitting  opportunity. 

One  mile  south  of  the  remains  under  consideration, 
and  about  three  hundred  feet  from  the  margin  of  the 
bayou,  is  a  peculiar  work,  in  the  form  of  an  oval  or 
egg-shaped  excavation,  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  long 
in  its  largest  diameter  and  seventy-five  feet  wide  and 
about  six  feet  deep.    It  is  surrounded  by  an  embank- 


ment about  eisrht  feet  in  height  around  its  northern 


Small   Drinking  Vessel, 
and  Stopper. 


curve  :  on  the  southern  end  the  wall  is  not  over  five 

feet,   in  which  is  a  narrow  opening,  and  extending  from  it  is  a  curved, 

elevated  way  to  the  swamp,  in  which  the  earth  taken  from  the  excavation 


THE  NEW  MADRID  MOUNDS.  37 

seems  to  have  been  deposited,  until  a  circular  mound  or  wharf  was  raised 
about  twenty  feet  in  diameter  and  five  feet  high  in  the  centre.  The  same 
opening  and  elevated  way  is  seen  at  the  northern  end,  extending  to  the 
water.  It  is  doubtless  an  unfinished  work,  but  its  purpose  cannot  be 
conjectured. 

About  eight  miles,  in  a  southeasterly  direction,  from  the  works  upon 
Bayou  St.  John,  upon  what  is  known  as  West  Lake,  is  another  exten- 
sive group  almost  identical  with  those  described  above,  differing  chiefly 
in  this,  that  they  are  covered  throughout  with  a  heavy  growth  of  timber; 
and  the  residence  sites  are  found  covering  a  much  larger  space,  and  in 
prodigious  numbers ;  while  in  the  center  of  the  group  is  an  open  space 
of  several  acres  which  seems  to  have  been  made  perfectly  level,  contain- 
ing no  elevations  or  depressions  whatever  save  what  may  have  been 
produced  by  the  uprooting  of  timber. 

The  aboriginal  remains  thus  briefly  described  are  only  small  groups  of 
the  multitudinous  works  with  which  this  whole  region  abounds,  and  in 
many  instances  are  still  covered  with  the  primeval  forests. 

They  seem  to  increase  in  number  and  size  as  we  approach  the  town 
of  New  Madrid,  where  they  appear  in  structures  of  much  greater  magni- 
tude, one  of  which  has  been  already  noticed.  Their  character  at  this 
place  would  seem  to  indicate  that  here  was  the  seat  of  government  and 
commercial  metropolis  of  a  dense  population,  which  occupied  a  large  extent 
of  territory,  embracing  not  only  New  Madrid  county,  but  also  the 
counties  of  Mississippi,  Scott,  Perry,  Butler,  Pemiscot,  Scotland, 
Madison,  Bollinger  and  Cape  Girardeau,  all  of  which  contain  the  same 
class  of  works,  and  whose  authors  were  the  same  people.  Further 
explorations,  I  have  no  doubt,  will  disclose  their  presence  in  other 
counties  adjoining. 


/ 


CHAPTER  V. 

One  People  the  Builders  of  these  Mounds.— Cremation  and  Burial  Mounds.— 
The  Big  Mound  at  St.  Louis.— Mistaken  Views.— Minute  Description  of  the 
Work.— Stone  Mounds.— Stone  Sepulchers  in  St.  Louis  and  Perry  Counties. 

Notwithstanding  the  variety  of  form  presented  in  the  multitudinous 
structures  throughout  the  continent  of  North  America,  the  comparison 
of  many  of  their  most  prominent  characteristics  makes  it  reasonably 
certain  that  one  people  were  the  authors  of  them  all.  While  many  of 
them  in  the  order  of  their  age  belong  to  periods  more  or  less  remote, 
reaching  back  many  hundreds  and  perhaps  thousands  of  years,  many 
others  are  comparatively  recent.  Taken  as  a  whole,  the  thoughtful 
observer  will  see,  in  this  diversity  of  configuration  and  grouping,  that 
natural  order  of  growth  which  might  be  looked  for  in  the  slow  develop- 
ment of  a  national  life,  whether  generated  among  the  people  themselves 
or  helped  forward  by  occasional  and  accidental  impulses  from  without. 
It  seems  highly  probable  that  there  were  two  slowly-moving  streams  of 
migration  from  the  north ;  the  most  important  one  on  the  east  of  the 
Mississippi,  the  other  through  the  territories  lying  west  of  the  river. 
This  southward  movement  of  a  vast  people  seems  to  have  been  arrested 
in  the  valley  of  the  Ohio  for  a  long  period  of  time.  Otherwise  the  fact 
can  hardly  be  accounted  for  that  here  occur  the  most  stupendous  monu- 
ments of  their  industry  and  skill,  and  also  the  most  striking  evidences 
of  the  stability  and  repose  of  their  national  life.  Here  the  mound- 
builders  reached  the  highest  stage  of  civilization  they  ever  attained  this 
side  of  Central  America  and  Mexico.  The  movement  upon  the  western 
side  of  the  river,  while  it  had  its  source  in  the  one  great  fountain-head 
at  the  north,  does  not  seem  to  have  been  so  well  defined  in  all  its 
characteristics,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  population  in  Mis- 
souri at  one  time  was  as  great,  and,  we  have  reason  to  think,  greater 
than  in  Ohio.  The  cause  may  have  been  that  they  never  enjoyed  a 
season  of  repose  and  exemption  from  war  to  such  a  degree  as  to  render  it 
possible  for  them  to  devote  the  time  and  concentrate  their  energies  upon 
their  internal  affairs  to  the  extent  which  resulted  in  the  more  advanced 
civilization  of  the  eastern  tribes.  There  seems  to  have  been  one  prevail- 
ing svstein  of  religion  among  them  all,  which  was  based  upon  the 
worship  of  the  heavenly  bodies.  This  remark  applies  not  only  to 
people  of  North  America,  but  to  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  the  southern 


CREMATION  AXD  BUKIAL  MOUNDS. 


39 


continent  as  well.     The  temple  mounds  in  both,  though  built  of  different 
materials,  are  the  same  in  form  and  purpose. 

While  the  oneness  of  their  forms  of  worship  of  itself  proves  nothing 
as  to  the  unity  of  their  origin,  still,  when  taken  in  connection  with  the 
fact  of  their  constant  intercourse,  and  the  identity  of  so  many  rites  and 
customs  among  them  all,  it  is  believed  no  extended  argument  is  needed, 
as  before  stated,  to  prove  that,  whatever  may  be  the  relative  age  of  the 
groups  of  works  found  in  different  localities,  they  were  all  built  by  one 
people.  In  view  of  the  foregoing  it  ought  not  to  be  surprising  if,  as  we 
trace  the  history  of  their  development  as  recorded  in  their  remains,  we 
find  here  and  there  traces  of  a  radical  change  in  some  of  their  customs. 
The  one  we  have  now  to  consider  is  a  most  important  and  significant  one, 
which  relates  to  the  disposition  of  their  dead.  This  has  already  been 
noticed  (see  p.  17,  fig.  2),  as  illustrated  in  the  two  cemeteries  in  Carroll 
Count}',  Illinois,  with  traditional  reasons  for  the  substitution  of  mound 
burial  for  cremation.  Many  able  writers  upon  American  antiquities  have 
given  much  attention  to  the  numerous  class  of  works  which  have  usually 
been  denominated  sacrificial  mounds. 

These  are  described  as  presenting  upon  excavation  a  basin-shaped 
cavity  of  varying  dimensions  :  frequently  paved  with  stones,  and  con- 
taining ashes  and  charcoal,  which  are  sometimes  mingled  wdth  various 
implements  and  ornaments,  all  showing  the  action  of  fire.  To  my  own 
mind  the  evidences  are  almost  conclusive  that  these  should  be  denom- 
inated Cremation  Mounds  ;  and  that  up  to  a  certain  period  this  was  the 
u>ual,  and  perhaps,  universal,  method  of  disposing  of  the  remains  oi 
departed  friends.  The  size  of  the  mound  would  then  indicate  the  rank 
of  him  whose  body  was  thus  consumed  therein.  Upon  no  other  hypothe- 
sis can  we  account  for  the  earth  being  heaped  upon  the  so-called  altars 
while  the  fires  wTere  yet  burning,  leaving  some  portions  of  the  wood 
yet  unconsumed.  At  length  this  practice  ceased  and  mound  burial  took 
its  place.  The  latter  custom  seems  to  have  been  the  one  universally 
practiced  by  the  mound-builders  of  Missouri. 

While  cremation  mounds  occur  in  Iowa  and  Wisconsin,  if  any  exist  in 
Missouri  they  are  yet  to  be  discovered.  But  here  even  the  mode  oi 
burial  was  not  uniform  throughout  the  State,  nor  always  in  the  same 
locality  even.  One  class,  in  the  bayou  St.  John  group,  has  already  been 
described.  It  is  to  be  remembered  that  in  these  no  implements  what- 
ever were  found  with  the  interments — nothing  save  the  earthen  vessels 
for  food  and  drink.  Occasionally  a  flint  spear  and  arrowhead  would  be 
disclosed,  but  in  such  relations  that  I  have  no  doubt  their  presence  was 


40  AUCHJEOLOGY. 

accidental.  These  mounds  I  believe  to  have  been  the  ordinary  burial 
places  of  the  people.  In  others,  as  was  the  case  with  the  one  upon 
which  the  O'Fallon  mansion  stands,  great  numbers  of  stone  axes,  arrow- 
points,  and  the  like  abound. 

In  the  one  case,  only  those  domestic  utensils  were  deposited  which 
minister  to  the  comfort  of  their  domestic  life ;  in  the  other,  those  which 
served  them  in  war  and  manly  activities.  Nor  does  this  seem  strange, 
when  we  remember  the  belief,  so  common  among  mankind  in  certain 
stages  of  civilization,  that  those  pursuits  to  which  the  individual  was 
devoted  in  this  life  are  continued  in  the  life  be}-ond  the  grave  ;  conse- 
quently, if  he  had  been  a  great  hunter  or  mighty  in  war,  it  would  be 
most  natural  to  deposit  with  him,  in  the  tomb,  his  arms.  But  if  the 
nation  were  at  peace,  and  unused  to  the  arts  of  war,  his  friends  would 
think  only  of  a  necessary  supply  of  food  and  drink ;  hence  vessels  of 
pottery  would  be  the  sole  accompaniments  of  his  journey. 

Should  the  idea  here  advanced  be  substantiated  by  future  investigation, 
that  cremation  was  once  the  prevailing  custom  and  that  at  some  period  it 
was  discontinued  and  mound-burial  adopted  in  its  place,  then  it  would 
seem  altogether  probable  that  Southeast  Missouri  was  peopled  at  some 
time  subsequent  to  that  event,  and  therefore  the  works  so  abundant  there 
are  more  recent  than  those  of  the  Ohio  Valley. 

Another  class  of  sepulchral  mounds,  whose  occurrence  is  somewhat 
rare,  has  been  observed  more  particularly  in  the  Western  Central  States. 
Generally  they  are  of  large  dimensions  and  contain  a  chamber  or  vault, 
which  is  sometimes  rudely  finished  with  stone.  The  floor  is  usually 
on  a  level  writh  the  natural  surface  of  the  soil,  upon  wmich  the  dead  were 
placed,  in  a  reclining  posture.  The  most  conspicuous  example  of  this 
class  is  the  one  known  as  the  Big  Mound,  which  once  stood  at  the  corner 
of  Mound  street  and  Broadway  in  St.  Louis,  but  which,  as  before  stated, 
was  removed  in  1869.  A  representation  of  it,  as  it  appeared,  is  given 
in  our  frontispiece. 

Of  all  sepulchral  mounds  thus  far  examined,  this  was  the  king.  If 
its  magnitude,  or  rather  the  size  of  the  vault  within  it  has  any  signifi- 
cance, it  would  seem  to  have  been  the  tomb  of  the  most  holy  prophets 
or  of  the  royal  race.  The  statements  concerning  its  dimensions  are 
widely  different.  According  to  one  observer,  it  was  four  hundred  feet 
in  length,  two  hundred  feet  wide  at  the  base  and  over  fifty  feet  high. 
According  to  Mr.  Brackenridge,  it  was  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  in 
length  and  thirty  in  height.  The  latter  figures  are  probably  not  far  from 
the  truth. 


THE  BIG  MOUND  AT  ST.  LOUIS.  41 

These  discrepancies  are  not  difficult  of  explanation  when  it  is  remem- 
bered that  in  its  construction,  advantage  was  taken  of  the  highest  point 
of  the  terrace,  and  when  the  streets  were  cut  through  it,  on  its  northern 
and  southern  ends,  the  grade  was  nearly  twenty  feet  lower  than  the  top 
of  the  terrace  upon  which  it  was  erected.  A  casual  observer,  therefore, 
would  be  likely  to  take  the  whole  as  artificial,  whereas  more  than  one- 
half,  as  it  then  appeared,  was  of  fluviatile  origin.  The  dividing  line 
between  the  natural  ground  and  the  mound  proper  is  shown  in  the 
engraving.  It  is  about  midway  between  the  level  of  the  street  and  the 
top  of  the  mound. 

The  demolition  of  this  ancient  landmark  was  an  event  which  awakened 
much  interest  among  the  citizens,  who  gathered  in  crowds,  from  day 
to  day  during  the  many  weeks  occupied  by  its  removal.  Numerous 
and  conflicting  accounts  were  published  at  the  time  concerning  it,  with 
any  amount  of  speculation  and  hasty  conclusions.  Some  of  them  have 
been  perpetuated  in  one  recent  work,  at  least,  upon  the  pre-historic 
races  of  America ;  on  which  account  I  think  it  proper  to  say  that  the 
statements  which  follow  are  based  upon  personal  and  careful  examination 
of  the  work  during  the  process  of  its  removal,  until  its  destruction 
was  accomplished. 

This  mound,  as  is  well  known,  was  used  by  the  Indians  as  a  burial 
place,  and  only  about  sixty  years  since,  it  was  visited  by  a  small  band, 
who  disinterred  and  carried  away  the  bones  of  their  chief  who  had  been 
buried  there.  But  their  interments  here,  as  was  their  unvarying 
custom,  were  near  the  surface.  I  have  observed  the  same  in  other 
localities,  sometimes  not  more  than  eighteen  inches  from  the  top  of  the 
mound, — as  was  the  case  with  some  I  examined  in  Washington  County, 
on  the  banks  of  the  Missouri.  On  account  of  this  it  is  not  difficult  to 
distinguish  the  Indian  burials  from  those  of  the  Mound-builders.  Had 
this  fact  been  better  understood,  we  would  have  been  spared  many  erro- 
neous statements,  as  well  as  hasty  generalizations  upon  articles  taken 
from  the  mounds,  which  were  attributed  to  their  builders,  but  which, 
in  fact,  were  deposited  by  the  Indians  ;  and  many  of  them  even,  subse- 
quent to  their  first  acquaintance  with  our  own  race.  A  striking  example 
of  this  occurred  during  the  removal  of  the  "Big  Mound."  Near  the 
northern  end,  and  about  three  feet  from  the  surface,  two  skeletons  were 
discovered  very  near  each  other,  one  evidently  that  of  a  male,  the  other 
a  female.  With  the  larger  of  the  two  were  found  the  spiral  spines  of 
two  conch  shells,  much  decayed,  nine  ivory  beads  of  an  average  size,  as 
near  as   I    can    recollect,    one  inch  in  length  and  nearly    one-half    in 


42  ARCHEOLOGY. 

diameter,  an  ivory  spool  with  short  shaft  but  very  wide  flanges,  which 
were  much  broken  around  the  edges,  and  two  curious  articles  of  copper, 
about  three  inches  in  length  and  about  half  as  wide,  resembling  some- 
what in  shape  the  common  smoothing  iron  of  the  laundry.  The  under 
side,  which  was  concave,  showed  the  marks  of  the  mould  in  which  they 
were  cast.  The  upper  side,  which  was  much  corroded,  showed  traces 
of  an  elaborate  finish  in  the  way  of  engraving.  From  the  center  of  the 
finished  upper  side  an  arm  projected  at  a  right  angle,  about  five-eighths 
of  an  inch  in  continuous  width  and  two-eighths  in  thickness  at  its  junc- 
ture, which  tapered  to  a  thin  edge. 

Embedded  in  the  verdigris  with  which  they  were  encrusted  were  plainly 
visible  the  marks  of  a  twisted  string  just  like  ordinary  wrapping  twine, 
which  had  been  clumsily  tied  about  them,  and  upon  which  the  beads  had 
been  strunsr.  All  the  above  articles  were  about  the  head  and  neck  of  the 
skeleton,  and  had  evidently  been  interred  with  the  possessor  just  as  he 
wore  them  in  life. 

I  have  been  thus  particular  in  the  account  of  this  "big  Indian"  and  his 
treasures — for  such  he  undoubtedly  was — because  these  articles  of  copper, 
and  the  ivory  spool,  which  must  have  been  turned  in  a  lathe,  (and  I 
must  include  also  the  pieces  of  cloth  found  with  them,  which  however  I 
did  not  see)  have  been  taken  as  the  exponents  of  the  state  of  the  arts 
among  the  Mound-builders,  and  have  been  made  the  subject  of  the  most 
extravagant  statements.  Although  I  was  not  present  when  these  articles 
were  taken  out,  they  were  placed  in  my  hands  a  short  time  afterward, 
by  the  person  who  unearthed  them,  who  also  kindly  gave  me  portions  of 
the  skull,  the  larger  bones  of  the  legs,  and  a  lock  of  hair!  from  the  head 
of  both  the  sachem  and  his  squaw,  which  are  still  in  my  possession. 

But  the  most  interesting  feature  of  this  truly  great  structure  is  the 
sepulchral  chamber  which  it  once  contained.  By  what  means  the 
ponderous  mass  of  earth  which  formed  its  roof  was  sustained,  the  mound 
itself  furnished  no  clue,  for  it  had  long  ago  fallen  in  and  crushed  almost 
to  atoms  the  already  decayed  bones  of  the  skeletons  lying  upon  the 
floor.  The  original  length  of  the  chamber  could  only  be  conjectured,  as 
portions  of  the  mound  had  been  removed  when  the  street  was  cut 
through  upon  the  southern  end,  as  seen  in  the  engraving.  It  could  be 
traced,  however,  for  seventy-two  feet.  For  this  distance  the  sides  were 
perfectly  smooth  and  straight,  and  sloped  outwardly  a  few  degrees  from 
the  perpendicular,  and  the  marks  of  the  tool  by  which  the  walls  were 
plastered  could  be  plainly  seen.  One  circumstance,  which  was  very 
puzzling  for  a  while,  was  the  curious  appearance  of  the  surface  of  the 


THE  BIG  MOUND  AT  ST.  LOUIS.  43 

walls.  They  were  covered  with  a  complete  network  of  black  lines, 
interlacing  and  crossing  each  other  with  all  sorts  of  beautiful  and  fanciful 
complications,  resembling  more  than  anything  else  the  delicate  tracery  of 
a  frosted  window  pane.  Upon  careful  examination,  these  proved  to  be 
the  remains  of  rootlets  from  the  trees  which  once  grew  upon  the  surface 
above  ;  which,  rinding  easy  ingress  along  the  face  of  the  wall,  had  thus 
covered  its  surface,  but  were  now  completely  carbonized. 

The  manner  of  its  construction  seems  to  have  been  thus  :  The  surface 
of  the  ground  was  first  made  perfectly  level  and  hard  ;  then  the  walls 
were  raised  with  an  outward  inclination,  which  were  also  made  perfectly 
compact  and  solid,  and  plastered  over  with  moist  clay.  Over  these  a 
roof  was  formed  of  heavy  timbers,  and  above  all  the  mound  was  raised 
of  the  desired  dimensions.1  The  bodies  had  all  been  placed  in  a  direct 
line,  upon  the  floor  of  the  vault,  a  few  feet  apart,  and  equidistant  from 
each  other,  with  their  feet  towards  the  west.  These  were  disclosed, 
several  at  a  time,  as  the  laborers  detached  long,  vertical  sections  of 
earth  by  the  simultaneous  use  of  crowbars  inserted  at  the  top.  Mingled 
with  the  black  deposit  which  enveloped  the  bones,  were  beads  and  shells 
in  prodigious  numbers,  though  in  no  instance  were  both  deposited  with 
the  same  individual. 

The  beads,  so  called,  are  the  same  as  are  found  in  the  mounds  of  Ohio, 
and  evidently  cut,  as  Dr.  Foster  thinks,  from  the  Busy  con,  from  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico.  They  are  small  discs  perforated  in  the  center  by  drill- 
ing. From  the  many  specimens  in  my  possession  in  various  stages  of 
their  manufacture,  the  conclusion  is  warranted  that  the  hole  was  first 
drilled  and  the  edges  rounded  afterwards.  Many  of  these  seem  to  have 
been  cut  from  the  common  mussel-shells  which  are  abundant  in  this  region. 
The  small  sea  shells  (MargineUa  apicina),  were  only  found  with  a  few 
skeletons,  possibly  five  or  six  at  the  southern  end  of  the  vault,  and  with  each 
one  from  four  to  six  quarts,  all  of  which  were  pierced  with  small  holes 
near  the  head,  by  which  they  were  undoubtedly  strung  together.  With 
the  majority,  however,  only  the  perforated  buttons  were  found,  but  in 
such  numbers  that  the  body  from  the  thighs  to  the  head  must  have  been 
covered  with  them. 

Being  very  desirous  of  securing,  if  possible,  a  perfect  skull,  or  at 
least  the  fragments  from  which  one  might  be  reconstructed,  and  as  all 

1  Although  not  a  vestige  of  wood  was  discovered  when  it  was  removed,  in  a  work 
across  the  river,  more  recently  destroyed,  which  contained  a  similar  vault,  were  found 
sticks  of  red  cedar,  much  decayed,  but  in  such  positions  as  showed  that  they  had  been 
the  supports  of  the  superincumbent  earth. 


44 


ARCHAEOLOGY. 


which  were  thrown  out  by  the  excavators  were  in  small  pieces  which 
crumbled  at  the  touch,  I  began  a  careful  excavation  with  a  common 
kitchen  knife  near  the  feet  of  a  skeleton,  following  the  spinal  column  to 
the  head.  My  work  was  soon  interrupted  however  by  the  crowd  of 
eager  boys  from  the  neighboring  schools,  who  scrambled  for  the  beads 
which  were  thrown  out  with  every  handful  of  earth,  with  such  energy 
that  I  was  lifted  from  my  feet  and  borne  away.  By  the  aid  of  a  burly 
policeman,  however,  I  was  able  to  finish  my  excavation,  but  without 
beino-  able  to  secure  what  was  so  much  desired.  The  bones  were  so  much 
decayed,  when  the  roof  fell  in,  that  all  the  larger  bones  were  crushed, 
and  only  small  fragments  of  the  skull  could  be  obtained,  and  of  course 
no  cavity  corresponding  to  its  shape  remained  from  which  a  plaster  cast 
might  have  been  taken. 

The  last  visit  to  the  mound  was  most  interesting  of  all.  The 
night  before,  the  workmen  had  made  a  vertical  cut  directly  across 
the  northern  end  of  the  small  portion  of  the  work  which  yet  remained. 


Cross-Section  of  the  Big  Mound  at  St.  Louis. 

What  was  there  revealed  is  well  represented  in  the  engraving.  The 
sloping  walls  were  of  compact  yellow  clay,  the  intermediate  space  filled 
with  blue  clay  in  a  much  looser  condition,  in  perfect  agreement  with  the 
idea  of  its  having  fallen  in  from  above  by  the  decay  of  its  support.  Here 
too,  at  the   northern  end,  I  conjectured,  was  the  entrance  to  the  sepul- 


STONE  MOUNDS.  45 

cher,  for  the  reason  that  here  the  walls  were  about  eight  feet  in  height, 
from  six  feet  to  eight  feet  apart,  whereas  the  first  measurements  at  the 
top,  when  the  walls  were  discovered,  showed  a  diameter  of  eighteen  feet. 

Here,  then,  was  an  artificial  sepulchral  tomb,  whose  dimensions  we 
may  safely  state  to  have  been  from  eight  to  twelve  feet  wide,  seventy- 
five  feet  long,  and  from  eight  to  ten  feet  in  height,  in  which  from  twenty 
to  thirty  burials  had  taken  place.  If  any  other  deposit  had  been  made 
with  the  dead,  save  the  before-mentioned  beads  and  shells,  the  tomb  must 
have  been  desecrated  by  some  savage  who  had  no  regard  for  its  sacred 
character,  for  not  a  vestige  of  anything  else  was  disclosed  at  the  time  of 
its  demolition. 

Another  evidence  of  a  large  aboriginal  population  is  furnished  by  the 
stone  mounds  which  are  very  numerous  in  certain  localities,  particularly  in 
those  counties  through  which  flow  the  Osage  and  the  Gasconade  rivers. 
Not  being  so  conspicuous  as  the  others  already  noticed,  they  would  not 
be  likely  to  attract  the  attention  of  ordinary  travelers,  and  may  therefore 
be  found  covering  a  much  larger  area  than  is  at  present  known.  These 
are  simple  heaps  of  stones,  of  such  size  as  could  be  conveniently  carried 
from  the  ravines  where  they  are  found  to  the  highest  elevations — the  spots 
usually  chosen  for  their  erection.  I  have  seen  them  in  groups  on  a  con- 
tinuous line  running  back  from  the  very  brow  of  a  precipitous  escarpment 
two  hundred  and  fifty  feet  above  the  Gasconade,  which  swept  majestically 
below.  In  fact,  those  commanding  elevations,  no  matter  how  difficult  of 
access,  from  whence  the  view  of  the  surrounding  landscape  was  most 
extended  and  lovely,  seem  to  have  been  the  ones  most  preferred.  The 
Ozark  Hills,  clothed  with  the  primeval  forests,  are  full  of  them.  They 
are  generally  considered  more  recent  than  the  earthen  tumuli.  In  all 
that  I  have  opened  nothing  was  discovered  which  shed  any  light  upon 
their  history,  save  a  few  human  teeth  and  the  smallest  bits  of  the  larger 
bones,  which  proved  them  to  be  burial  mounds.  It  is  stated  by  Adair 
that  some  of  the  nomadic  tribes  of  Indians  thus  disposed  .of  their  dead, 
and  as  they  passed  and  re-passed  those  graves,  from  year  to  year  each  man 
of  the  tribe  was  accustomed  to  add  another  stone  to  the  heap  which  had 
been  raised  above  them.  In  agroup  of  seven,  I  observed  one  which  showed 
some  skill  in  masonry;  one  of  the  walls  was  built  up  with  a  smooth  face 
about  three  feet  in  height,  in  which  the  joints  were  beautifully  broken, 
although  there  was  no  evidence  of  mortar  having  been  used. 

In  this  connection  should  be  noticed  still  another  class  ;  the  most  note- 
worthy examples  of  which,  were  discovered  about  the  year  1818,  in  the 
town  of  Fenton,  about  fifteen  miles  from  St.  Louis.     These  were  stone 


46  ARCHAEOLOGY. 

graves  or  cists,  each  inclosing  a  single  skeleton,  or  the  dust  of  one — as  all 
were  in  a  crumbling  condition  there.  Not  one  of  the  many  examined 
exceeded  fifty  inches  in  length.  They  were  built  of  six  flat  stones,  single 
slabs  forming  the  bottom,  top,  sides,  and  ends. 

According  to  Dr.  Beck,  of  Gazetteer  fame,  much  discussion  was  elicited 
at  the  lime  and  many  communications  appeared  in  the  newspapers.  The 
chief  point  upon  which  it  all  centered  was  the  shortness  of  the  graves. 
As  was  the  case  in  Tennessee,  a  few  years  since,  it  was  considered  as 
proving  the  former  existence  of  a  race  of  pigmies.  But  the  fact  that  in 
some  of  them  the  leg  bones  were  observed  lying  parallel  with  and  along- 
side of  the  bones  of  the  thigh,  accounted  for  the  shortness  of  the  graves  ; 
and  this,  taken  along  with  the  well-known  custom  practiced  by  some 
tribes,  of  suspending  their  dead  in  the  branches  of  trees  until  the  bones 
were  denuded  of  flesh  and  afterwards  depositing  them  in  their  common 
burying  place,  was  regarded  as  a  sufficient  answer  to  all  the  pigmy  spec- 
ulations. 

About  one  hundred  yards  from  the  ancient  burying  ground  at  Fenton 
were  once  a  number  of  mounds,  and  remains  of  an  extensive  fortification, 
which  also  attracted  the  attention  of  the  curious  in  those  early  days. 
And  if  files  of  the  old  Missouri  Gazette  of  sixty  years  ago  could  be 
found,  no  doubt  many  interesting  facts  would  be  recovered  which  are 
now  forgotten.  Similar  stone  graves  are  found  in  Perry  County,  seventy- 
five  miles  from  St.  Louis. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

"The  Cave-Dwellers/'  —  Tales  of  Discoveries  in  Kentucky,  etc. —  The  Catos  op 
the  Ozark  Mountains.  —  Proofs  of  Long  Occupancy.  —  Skeletons  and  other 
Relics  Found.  —  The  Cave-Dwellers  a  Different  Race  from  the  Mound- 
Builders. 

To  the  general  student  of  Ethnology  and  Archaeology,  no  one  depart- 
ment of  antiquarian  research  has  yielded  grander  or  more  satisfactory 
results  than  those  which  have  rewarded  the  explorers  of  the  caves  and 
rock-shelters  of  some  of  the  mountain  chains  of  the  old  world.  Concern- 
in^  the  relative  a^e  of  the  earthen  structures  of  the  vast  alluvial  plains 
of  America  there  may  be  much  difference  of  opinion.  But  in  his 
occupancy  of  the  caves  of  Europe,  primeval  man  has  so  inscribed  the 
records  of  his  early  life  and  presence,  during  those  geologic  changes 
which  he  witnessed,  in  the  succession  of  the  glacial  and  diluvial  epochs, 
that  they  are  sometimes  as  sharply  delineated  and  legible  as  are  those 
of  the  various  orders  of  animal  life  in  the  stratified  rocks  By  these 
faithful  chronographs  of  the  childhood  of  the  race,  we  are  carried  back 
irresistibly  to  a  period  so  remote,  that  the  cave-dwellers  from  Mount 
Hor,  who  joined  the  confederate  kings,  and  were  so  signally  overthrown 
by  Abram  in  the  plains  of  Sodom,  were  but  of  yesterday. 

In  America,  this  field  is  comparatively  unexplored,  or  perhaps  we  had 
better  say,  is  undiscovered.  Indeed,  it  may  be  that  we  have  nothing 
here  which  shall  be  found  to  correspond  to  or  compare  with  the  drift 
period  and  bone-caves  of  Europe.  It  is  true  we  find,  in  the  early  tales 
of  border  life  in  Virginia,  Kentucky  and  Tennessee,  accounts  which 
must  contain  some  elements  of  truth,  of  caverns  filled  with  human  bones  ; 
others  whose  walls  are  pictured  and  sculptured  with  strange  devices,  of 
animals,  known  and  unknown ;  and  representations  of  the  heavenly 
bodies  ;  and  others  still,  containing  mummied  corpses,  embalmed  and 
wonderfully  preserved,  clad  in  robes  of  feather-work  like  those  of  Peru- 
vian fabric  which  so  filled  the  Spanish  conquerors  with  admiration.  But 
alas  !  these  were  long  since  destroyed.  Then,  they  had  little  or  no 
scientific  value,  consequently  there  was  no  motive  for  their  serious 
examination,  or  preservation. 

Still,  however,  we  may  indulge  the  not  unreasonable  hope  that  others 
may  yet  be  discovered,  -whose  disclosures  shall  be  equally  precious.  In 
this  hope  we  are  the  more  encouraged  by  the  fact  that  the  few  which 
have  been  noticed  and  described,  furnish  indubitable    proof  that   they 


48 


ARCHAEOLOGY. 


were  once  the  favorite  resorts,  for  burial  purposes,  of  some  pre-historic 
race.  When  the  stones  shall  be  rolled  away  from  the  doors  of  the  sep- 
ulchral caverns  in  the  limestone  hills  of  Missouri,  the  lonsr-forfotten 
dead  may  again  come  forth  re-vivified,  rehabilitated,  and  the  Ozark 
Mountains  may  yet  disclose  materials  for  a  chapter  in  the  life  of  her 
primitive  people,  which  shall  equal  in  interest  the  records  of  the  mounds. 
The  Ozarks,  thanks  to  their  sterile  slopes,  have  preserved  their  sacred 


Among  the  Ozarks. 

treasures  well.  They  are  honeycombed  with  caves,  some  of  unknown 
extent.  Their  openings  may  be  seen  in  the  precipitous  bluffs  along  the 
Gasconade  River,  in  great  numbers,  on  either  side,  or  the  majestic  arches 
of  their  openings  span  the  divides  where  the  smaller  hill  ranges  meet. 
Do  these  numerous  caves  and  channels  evidence  an  ancient  system  of 
drainage,  in  operation  long  before  the  Gasconade  had  asserted  its  "right 
of  way  "  and  scooped  for  itself  a  course  through  the  rocks  by  its  cease- 
less flow?  1 

In  these  caves  the  ancient  dead  were  buried  and  the  funeral  feasts 
were  celebrated.     The  deep  deposit  of  rich  nitrogenous    earth  in  the 


1  See  Sir  Charles  Lyell's  remarks  upon  the  Valley  of  the  Meuse,  "  Antiquity  of  Man," 
p.  73. 


THE  CAVE  DWELLERS.  49 

larger  chambers,  and  the  bones  of  various  animal*,  birds,  and  mussel 
shells — the  refuse  of  the  funeral  feasts, — the  alternate  layers  of  ashes  and 
charcoal  mingled  with  earth}'  matter,  containing  human  bones  in  different 
degrees  of  preservation,  tell  of  oft-repeated  visits  and  recurrence  of  the 
funeral  rites. 

What  little  we  have  learned  from  the  few  thus  far  explored  makes  us 
only  the  more  eager  to  examine  still  further  the  records  they  contain. 
A  description  of  one  must  serve  our  present  purpose.  The  one  selected 
is  in  Pulaski  County,  and  is  one  of  the  many  famous  saltpetre  caves  so 
often  mentioned  in  the  early  annals  of  the  State,  with  which  the  country 
of  the  Gasconade  abounds.  The  opening  is  in  the  face  of  a  perpen- 
dicular limestone  bluff  which  extends  along  the  river  for  many  miles. 
"While  the  scenery  of  this  whole  region  is  very  beautiful,  the  view  from 
the  mouth  of  some  of  the  caves  is  enchanting.  Standing  in  the  shadow 
of  one  of  their  lofty  arches,  the  eye  is  charmed  with  the  peculiar  beauty 
of  the  landscape  spread  out  before  it.  The  Gasconade  flowing  far  below, 
the  stately  trees  which  fringe  its  banks  and  mark  the  course  of  its  long 
graceful  curves,  until  it  loses  itself  in  the  dim  outlines  of  the  Ozarks, 
which  swell  and  roll  away  until  their  opalescent  hues  melt  into  the  mel- 
low light  of  the  autumn  sk}-, — all  conspire  to  awaken  the  liveliest 
feelings  of  respect  and  admiration  for  a  people  whose  aesthetic  taste  was 
so  refined  and  tender  as  to  lead  them  to  select  a  place  so  charming  for 
the  long  repose  of  their  loved  ones.  But  poetry  and  science  have  but 
little  in  common  :  one  must  end  where  the  other  begins.  So  turning  my 
back  upon  the  beautiful  scene,  and  repressing  all  compunctions  for  the 
sacrilege  we  are  about  to  commit,  the  impatient  workmen  are  directed 
to  begin  the  labor  of  cutting  a  trench  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  feet 
long,  through  the  deposit  at  the  bottom  of  the  cave.  At  the  end  of  this 
distance  the  perpetual  gloom  begins.  Here  the  torches  are  brought  into 
requisition,  by  whose  dim  light,  as  the  laborers  proceed  with  their  work, 
the  sectional  notes  and  measurements  are  taken. 

The  whole  surface  of  the  deposit  seems  to  have  been  much  disturbed, 
to  the  depth  of  from  eighteen  inches  to  two  feet.  It  is  composed  of 
earth  and  ashes,  mingled  profusely  with  broken  pottery,  fragments 
of  human  bones  and  flint-chips.  Below  this,  the  deposit  is  hard  and 
compact.  Selecting  a  point  about  midway  from  either  end  of  the  trench, 
we  proceed  to  make  more  critical  examination.  Continuing  the  excav- 
ation to  the  depth  of  six  feet,  the  natural  deposit  at  the  bottom  is 
reached,  composed  of  a  tough  reddish  clay,  which  contained  nothing 
but   decayed    mussel    shells.      All    above   this    showed    the    continual 


50  ARCHAEOLOGY. 

occupancy  of  the  cave  during  its   deposition.     A  vertical   section  at  the 
point  above  named,  disclosed   the  following  strata: 


Alluvium,  mingled  with  ashes,  bits  of  pottery,  etc 18  inches. 

Stratum  of  different  colored  ashes 2     " 

Clay  and  dark  Alluvium 2%  " 

Ashes Vz  " 

Alluvium 3     " 

Mixture  of  Ashes  and  Clay 3     " 

Pure  Ashes Yz  " 

Alluvium 3^  " 

Pure  Ashes,  mingled  with  Charcoal 4     " 

Alluvium,  "  "  "        7     " 

Ashes 3     " 

Alluvium,  mingled  with  Charcoal 20     " 

At  the  depth  of  about  two  feet,  the  first  skeleton  was  reached,  lying 
upon  its  back,  with  head  towards  the  east.  All  the  small  bones  were 
thoroughly  decayed.  About  six  feet  north  of  this,  another  skeleton  was 
disclosed,  evidently  buried  in  a  sitting  posture.  This  was  so  much 
decomposed  that  only  a  few  of  the  thicker  portions  of  the  skull  could 
be  secured.  Near  this  was  also  found  the  skeleton  of  a  very  aged 
female,  the  skull  in  a  better  state  of  preservation.  In  companionship 
with  these  was  a  flint  spear-head  of  the  rudest  pattern,  as  were  all  the 
implements  of  stone — which  were  not  numerous — which  the  deposit 
contained.  With  the  exception  of  the  rude  spear-head,  their  presence 
seemed  to  have  been  accidental,  and  this  also  may  have  been  so. 
Among  the  most  interesting  relics,  were  articles  of  bone,  such  as  awls, 
scrapers,  and  the  like,  and  occasionally  one  made  from  the  inner  surface 
of  a  shell,  with  a  sharp  edge. 

What  was  most  surprising  was  the  prodigious  number  of  mussel 
shells  which  were  continuous  through  the  whole  deposit,  decreasing  in 
size  and  more  decayed  as  we  descended,  until  their  whole  substance  wTas 
a  chalky  paste.  These  are  still  abundant  in  the  river  below.  Inter- 
mingled with  the  alluvium  and  ashes,  as  far  as  the  excavation  extended, 
were  skulls  and  bones  of  fishes,  deer,  bear,  mud-turtle  and  wild 
turkey.  The  skulls  were  always  broken,  no  doubt  to  obtain  the  brains, 
which  have  always  been  esteemed  a  great  delicacy  among  the  civilized 
and  savage  as  well.  While,  for  purposes  of  ethnological  study,  a  more 
detailed  description  of  the  crania  contained  in  this  cave  would  be 
instructive,  and  other  particulars  here  suggested  might  be  properly 
enlarged  upon,  still,  enough  has  been  stated  to  indicate  the  desirable- 
ness of  a  more  thorough  exploration  of  this  comparatively  new  class 


THE  CAVE  DWELLERS. 


51 


of  antiquities.  But  keeping  in  mind  that  we  have  more  to  do  in  these 
chapters  with  the  traces  of  the  aboriginal  inhabitants  of  Missouri  than 
with  lengthy  generalizations  upon  the  facts  they  disclose,  we  can  only 
hint  at  one  or  two  conclusions. 


Bone  Implements. 


Here  was  the  burial  place  of  a  people  who  were  not  insensible  to 
those  beauties  with  which  nature  around  them  was  glorified,  and  who 
sought  those  places  with  the  most  lovely  surroundings  in  which  to  deposit 
the  remains  of  their  friends.  Here  were  laid  to  rest  from  time  to  time 
the  old  and  young,  the  aged  matron,  and  the  child,  the  fragments  of 
whose  thin,  paper-like  skulls  suggested  many  thoughts  of  maternal  love 
and  tears  of  sorrow.  The  vast  numbers  of  shells,  and  bones  of  beasts 
and  birds,  bear  witness  to  the  oft-repeated  funeral  feasts  beside  the  new- 
made  graves  of  the  departed,  and  point  to  a  belief  in  a  life  continued  in 
another  world.  Who  they  were,  or  when  they  lived,  it  is  not  our 
province  now  to  try  to  answer.  The  Indians,  it  is  well  known,  regarded 
these  gloomy  caverns  with  superstitious  fear,  for  in  them  they  believed 


52 


AKCH^EOLOGY. 


the  great  Manitou  dwelt.  In  view  of  this  fact,  so  well  attested  by  early 
writers,  the  idea  that  they  were  the  occupants  becomes  a  matter  of  °rave 
doubt.  The  skulls  thus  far  examined,  are  also  wanting  in  those  peculiar 
and  generally  very  marked  characteristics  which  are  so  evident  in  the 
crania  of  the  mounds.  With  this  allusion  to  a  question  so  interesting 
we  must  leave  its  discussion  to  a  future  occasion,  when  we  may  reason- 
ably hope  to  be  able  to  continue  it  in  the  light  of  more  extended 
information. 


CHAPTER    VII. 

Temple  Mounds.— Growth  of  Ancient  Religious  Systems.— Characteristics  of  this 
Class  of  Monuments.— The  Great  Mound  at  Cahokia,  its  best  representative 
in  North  America.— Brackenridge's  Description  of  it  in  1811.— How  it  came  to 
be  called  •«  monks'  mound."— the  ceremonies  of  the  sun-worshippers.— other 
Temple  Mounds.— The  Indivns  not  descended  from  the  Mound-Builders. 

Although  the  propriety  of  some  of  the  mound-classifications  of  the 
earlier  writers  has  sometimes  been  questioned,  no  doubts  are  entertained 
as  to  the  purpose  of  those  which  have  been  denominated  Temple  Mounds. 
In  treating  of  this  class,  we  enter  at  once  upon  a  field  almost  as  vast  as 
the  two  continents  of  America.  For,  whatever  may  have  been  the 
material  used  in  their  construction,  whether  stone,  or  earth  alone,  or 
both  combined,  they  present  such  uniform  characteristics,  so  identical  in 
evident  purpose  and  design,  that  they  link  together  by  one  prevailing 
system  of  religious  worship,  of  which  they  are  the  striking  exponents, 
unnumbered  tribes  and  peoples,  scattered  up  and  down  the  two  continents 
from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific.  Reason  as  we  may,  the  more  they  are 
studied,  and  considered  in  their  relation  to  other  groups  and  classes  with 
which  they  are  found  associated,  we  can  hardly  escape  the  conviction 
that  they  point  to  one  common  origin. 

Before  yielding  a  hasty  assent  to  a  general  conclusion,  a  proper  caution 
would  suggest  the  possibility  of  accounting  for  this  uniformity  of  struc- 
ture by  other  and  natural  considerations.  It  is  well  known  that  barbaric 
tribes  in  all  lands  and  rimes  have  manufactured  their  first  implements  of 
war  and  the  chase  from  stone  and  bone,  and  have  learned,  by  means  of 
some  hint  which  Nature,  perhaps,  afforded,  to  fashion  rude  vessels  of  clay 
for  domestic  use.  It  is  also  true  that  their  petitions  and  adorations  have 
been  addressed  to  the  same  class  of  imaginary  beings,  or  objects  and 
active  forces  whose  effects  they  were  accustomed  to  behold  around  them  ; 
among  which  the  heavenly  bodies  appear  to  have  occupied  a  conspicuous 
place,  particularly  during  some  stages  of  their  progress  from  barbarism 
to  a  higher  life. 

CD 

Possessed  of  the  same  faculties,  appetites  and  passions,  inheriting  the 
same  necessities,  meeting  always  the  same  difficulties  in  their  struggles 
for  existence,  it  is  not  surprising  that  rude  nations  have  ever  followed  the 
same  paths  in  all  the  activities  of  their  wild,  infantile  life.  Indeed,  it 
would  be  surprising  if  they  had  not.  From  these  and  similar  considera- 
tions it  may  be  thought  that  the  identity  of  form,  structure  and  relation, 


54  ARCHEOLOGY. 

and  also  apparent  oneness  of  purpose  which  characterize  the  Temple 
Mounds,  demonstrate  only  the  operation  of  a  universal  law,  in  the 
progress  of  a  people  from  a  state  of  barbarism  through  the  slow  stages 
of  its  devclopement  towards  a  higher  civilization.  The  sun  and  moon 
have  been  worshiped  in  ages  and  countries  widely  separated,  and  by 
nations  between  which  there  could  never  have  occurred  any  possible 
communication. 

Man  never  has  attained  by  intuition  or  philosophy  that  knowledge  of 
the  unity  and  perfections  of  the  Supreme  Being  which  Revelation  presents  : 
and  wanting  that  knowledge,  he  naturally  worships  those  visible  objects 
which  are  most  conspicuous  and  which  most  inspire  his  reverence, 
especially  those  which,  he  conceives,  exert  the  greatest  influence  upon 
his  life  and  destiny.  But  when  each  nation  starts  out  for  itself  in  the 
path  of  a  progressive  civilization,  the  prevailing  forms  of  worship,  being 
subjected  to  the  same  influences  which  mould  the  national  polity,  must 
necessarily,  under  the  new  impulse,  become  also  materially  changed,  or 
as  has  sometimes  happened,  displaced  altogether,  by  a  system  entirely 
new.  From  this  point,  the  forms  of  Nature-worship  would  cease  to  be 
identical,  and  each  resultant  SA'stem  become  thereafter  more  and  more 
divergent ;  and  long  periods  of  time  must  necessarily  be  required  for  the 
working  out  of  a  complicated  and  well  arranged  system  of  popular 
religion  which  should  be  able  to  enforce  the  ready  obedience  and  subjec- 
tion of  a  vast  people  to  its  mandates,  and  enlist  the  energies  of  the 
nation  in  the  erection  of  their  most  imposing  structures,  for  no  other 
purpose  than  the  observance  of  their  religious  rites  and  ceremonies.  Such 
structures,  among  the  memorials  of  an  ancient  people,  are  very  inter- 
esting and  instructive,  from  the  fact  that  religion  has  ever  exerted  such 
controlling  influence  in  the  establishment  and  perpetuity  or  decline  of 
countless  nations,  whose  history  has  been  preserved. 

They  are  the  records,  therefore,  of  more  than  the  religious  faith  and 
practice  of  a  particular  people  ;  but,  because  of  the  leavening  influence 
of  religious  ideas  when  crystallized  into  systematic  forms,  they  become  the 
interpreters  of  many  things  which  otherwise  would  never  be  understood. 

It  will  readily  be  seen,  therefore,  in  the  light  of  the  foregoing,  that 
the  Temple  Mounds  of  America  are  invested  with  an  interest  and 
importance  outside  of  their  purely  religious  character ;  and  which  is 
greatly  enhanced  by  the  fact  that  wherever  they  arc  found,  along  with 
them  invariably  occur  the  most  striking  evidences  of  the  former  presence 
of  a  numerous  population,  whose  civil  and  social  condition  was  separated 
by  a  wide  gulf  from  that  of  the  red  race  who  occupied  their  ancient  seats 


TEMPLE  MOUNDS.  55 

when  America  was  discovered ;  and  whose  government  was  so  well 
established  and  enduring,  as  to  render  it  possible  for  vast  numbers  to 
be  employed  for  a  series  of  years  in  their  erection. 

Temple  Mounds,  according  to  Squier  and  Davis,  "are  distinguished 
by  their  great  regularity  of  form  and  general  large  dimensions.  They 
consist  chiefly  of  pyramidal  structures,  truncated,  and  generally  have 
graded  avenues  to  their  tops.  In  some  instances  they  are  terraced  or 
have  successive  stages.  But  whatever  their  form,  whether  round,  oval, 
octangular,  square  or  oblong,  they  have  invariably  flat  or  level  tops."  l 

"  The  summits  of  these  structures  were  probably  crowned  with 
temples,  but  having  been  constructed  of  perishable  materials,  all  traces 
of  their  existence  have  disappeared.  The  truncated  pyramidal  form, 
which  often  rises  to  no  great  height,  was  obviously  the  foundation  for 
such  structures.  In  the  works  at  Aztalan,  Wisconsin,  we  trace  the  out- 
lines of  this  form  of  mounds  at  the  angles  of  the  bastions,  and  this  may 
be  said  to  be  their  northern  limit.  They  are  not  recognized  on  the 
southern  slope  of  Lake  Erie,  and  are  seen  at  only  three  points  in  Southern 
Ohio,  viz :     Marietta,  Newark  and  Chillicothe. 

"The  stupendous  mound  at  Cahokia  in  Illinois,  with  its  graded  way, 
its  terrace  and  level  summit,  was  the  best  representative  of  this  class.  3 
In  Kentucky  they  are  not  rare  ;  the  great  mound  near  Florence  is  of  this 
character,  and  that  near  Claiborne — fifty  feet  in  height — has  a  level 
summit  with  a  gradual  slope  on  the  east,  and  a  succession  of  ten  terraces 
on  the  west.  In  this  class,  too,  must  be  included  the  great  mound  at 
Seltzertown,  Mississippi,  and  most  of  those  in  the  Gulf  States. 

1  Ancient  Monuments  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  p.  173.  Smithsonian  Contributions  to 
Knowledge. 

*  When  he  wrote  this,  Dr.  Foster  was  under  the  impression  that  this  great  work  was 
destroyed.  "While  he  was  mistaken,  it  is  understood  to  be  for  sale,  and  may  soon  be 
reckoned  among  the  things  that  were,  provided  some  railway  shall  be  constructed  near 
enough  to  render  its  huge  mass — containing  several  million  cubic  yards  of  earth  — 
desirable  to  elevate  its  grade.  What  a  graceful  thing  it  would  be  for  the  State,  or 
National  Government  to  purchase  it  and  decree  its  perpetual  preservation!  Men  of 
science  all  over  the  world  and  in  all  future  time  would  be  so  thankful  for  such  an  act. 
Thus  the  Government  of  Denmark  has  done  with  her  antiquities.  Whether  either  of 
our  great  political  parties  could  be  persuaded  to  assume  such  a  tremendous  responsibility 
is  very  doubtful.  Our  legislators  are  so  conscientious  and  so  intent  upon  "  retrenchment 
and  reform."  that  the  expenditure  of  a  few  hundred  dollars  for  the  preservation  of  the 
stupendous  work  which  must  have  occupied  the  ceaseless  labor  of  thousands  of  men 
through  a  life-time  to  erect,  would  be  a  precedent  too  dangerous  to  think  of — such  an 
act  might  shake  the  foundations  of  the  Republic.  No  partizan  would  dare  favor  such  a 
proposition,  lest  it  should  be  followed  by  his  speedy  consignment  to  a  political  grave 
from  which  there  could  be  no  resurrection. 


56  ARCHEOLOGY. 

"  In  Mexico  and  Central  America,  we  see  the  culmination  of  this  form 
in  the  Teocallis,  which  were  faced  with  flights  of  steps  and  surmounted 
by  temples  of  stone."  1 

The  identification  of  some  of  the  mounds  in  their  enumeration  as 
Temple  Mounds,  by  the  authors  above  named,  I  cannot  but  regard  as 
lacking  confirmation.  Indeed  the  evidences  derived  from  1113'  own  obser- 
vations are  conclusive  that  some  of  them  belong  to  quite  another  class. 
Those  of  the  "  truncated  pyramidal  form  which  often  rise  to  no  great 
height,"  were  doubtless  crowned  with  the  residences  of  the  chiefs  and 
rulers.  These  are  often  found  in  groups.  I  have  counted  seven  or  eight 
very  near  each  other,  a  few  feet  in  height,  with  flat  or  level  tops  :  the 
central  one  generally  larger  than  those  around  it,  which  tradition  affirms 
was  occupied  by  the  dwelling  of  the  chief.  The  others  of  the  group  were 
erected  from  time  to  time  for  residence  sites  for  his  sons,  as  thev  came  to 
man's  estate  and  had  families  of  their  own.  In  all  which  I  have  excavated, 
nothing  was  disclosed  but  fragments  of  pottery. 

The  only  structures  which  can  with  certainty  be  identified  as  Temple 
Mounds  are  those  whose  perfect  model  is  seen  in  the  Teocallis  of  Mexico 
and  South  America. 

In  whatever  group  they  are  found,  they  are  the  most  imposing. 
Generally  oblong,  with  one  or  more  stages,  and  ascended  by  graded 
avenues.  Such  was  one  of  the  large  mounds  at  St.  Louis,  and  I  am 
disposed  to  believe  that  the  beautiful  Falling  Garden  was  an  unfinished 
work  of  this  class,  whose  three  stages,  about  fifteen  feet  each  in  height, 
were  finished,  but  the  elevated  work  which  was  to  crown  the  whole  was 
wanting. 

The  great  Cahokia  Mound  is  the  best  representative  of  this  class  to  be 
found  in  North  America.  This  was  examined  by  Mr.  Brackenridge  in 
1811-12.  His  interesting  description  of  it,  along  with  the  numerous 
works  of  smaller  dimensions  with  which  the  American  Bottom  is  filled, — 
or  was  in  his  day — may  well  be  quoted  entire  in  this  connection  : 

"To  form  a  more  correct  idea  of  these,  it  will  be  necessary  to  s;ive  the 
reader  some  view  of  the  tract  of  country  in  which  they  are  situated. 
The  American  Bottom  is  a  tract  of  rich  alluvial  land,  extending  on  the 
Mississippi,  from  Kaskaskia  to  the  Cahokia  Kiver,  about  eighty  miles  in 
length  and  i\ve  in  breadth  ;  several  handsome  streams  meander  through  it ; 
the  soil  is  of  the  richest  kind,  and  but  little  subject  to  the  effects  of  the 
Mississippi  floods.     A  number  of  lakes  are  interspersed  through  it,  with 

'  Foster's  Pre-Historic  Races,  etc.,  p.  1S6. 


THE  GEE  AT  MOUNT)  AT  CAHOKIA.  57 

fine  high  banks  ;  these  abound  in  fish,  and  in  autumn  are  visited  by 
millions  of  wild  fowl. 

'There  is  perhaps  no  spot  in  the  western  country,  capable  of  being 
more  highly  cultivated,  or  of  giving  support  to  a  more  numerous 
population,  than  this  valley.  If  any  vestige  of  ancient  population  were 
to  be  found,  this  would  be  the  place  to  search  for  it ;  accordingly  this 
tract,  as  also  the  bank  of  the  river  on  the  western  side,  exhibits  proofs 
of  an  immense  population.  If  the  city  of  Philadelphia  and  its  environs 
were  deserted,  there  would  not  be  more  numerous  traces  of  human 
existence. 

"The  great  number  of  mounds,  and  the  astonishing  quantity  of  human 
bones  everywhere  dug  up,  or  found  on  the  surface  of  the  ground  with 
a  thousand  other  appearances,  announce  that  this  valley  was  at  one 
period  tilled  with  habitations  and  villages.  The  whole  face  of  the  bluff,  or 
hill  which  bounds  it  on  the  east,  appears  to  have  been  a  continued  burying 
ground.  But  the  most  remarkable  appearances  are  two  groups  of  mounds 
or  pyramids,  the  one  about  ten  miles  above  Cahokia,  and  the  other 
nearly  the  same  distance  below  it,  which  in  all  exceed  one  hundred  and  fifty 
of  various  sizes.     The  western  side  also  contains  a  considerable  number. 

"A  more  minute  description  of  those  above  Cahokia,  which  I  visited  in 
the  fall  of  1811,  will  give  a  tolerable  idea  of  them  all.  I  crossed  the 
Mississippi  at  St.  Louis,  and  after  passing  through  the  wood  which 
borders  the  river,  about  a  half  a  mile  in  width,  entered  on  an  extensive 
plain. 

"In  fifteen  minutes  I  found  myself  in  the  midst  of  a  group  of  mounds, 
mostly  of  a  circular  shape  and  at  a  distance,  resembling  enormous  haystacks 
scattered  throusrh  a  meadow  :  one  of  the  largest,  which  I  ascended,  was 
about  two  hundred  paces  in  circumference  at  the  bottom,  the  form  nearly 
square,  though  it  had  evidently  undergone  considerable  alteration  from 
the  washing  of  rains  ;  the  top  was  level,  with  an  area  sufficient  to  contain 
several  hundred  men.  The  prospect  from  this  mound  was  very  beautiful ; 
looking  towards  the  bluffs,  which  are  dimly  seen  at  the  distance  of  six 
or  eight  miles,  the  bottom  at  this  place  being  very  wide,  I  had  a  level 
plain  before  me,  bound  by  islets  of  wood,  and  a  few  solitary  trees :  to 
the  right  the  prairie  is  bounded  by  the  horizon  ;  to  the  left,  the  course 
of  the  Cahokia  may  be  distinguished  by  the  margin  of  wood  upon  its 
banks,  and  crossing  the  valley  diagonally  S.  S.  W.  Around  me,  I 
counted  forty-five  mounds  or  pyramids,  besides  a  great  number  of  small 
artificial  elevations  :  these  mounds  form  something  more  than  a  semi- 
circle, about  a  mile  in  extent,  the  open  space  on  the  river. 


58  ARCHEOLOGY. 

"Pursuing  my  walk  along  the  bank  of  the  Cahokia,  I  passed  eight 
others  in  the  distance  of  three  miles,  before  I  arrived  at  the  largest 
assemblage.  When  I  reached  the  foot  of  the  principal  mound,  I  was 
struck  with  a  degree  of  astonishment  not  unlike  that  which  is  experienced 
in  contemplating  the  Egyptian  Pyramids.  What  a  stupendous  pile  of 
earth  !  To  heap  up  such  a  mass  must  have  required  years,  and  the  labor 
of  thousands.  It  stands  immediately  on  the  bank  of  the  Cahokia,  and 
on  the  side  next  it,  is  covered  with  lofty  trees.  Were  it  not  for  the 
regularity  and  design  which  it  manifests,  the  circumstances  of  its  being 
on  alluvial  ground,  and  the  other  mounds  scattered  around  it,  we  would 
scarcely  believe  it  the  work  of  human  hands. 

"The  shape  is  that  of  a  parallelogram  standing  from  north  to  south  ;  on 
the  south  side  there  is  a  broad  apron  or  step,  about  halfway  down,  and 
from  this  another  projection  into  the  plain,  about  fifteen  feet  wide,  which 
was  probably  intended  as  an  ascent  to  the  mound.  By  stepping  around 
the  base  I  computed  the  circumference  to  be  at  least  eight  hundred 
yards,  and  the  height  of  the  mound  about  ninety  feet.  The  step  or 
apron  has  been  used  as  a  kitchen-garden  by  the  monks  of  La  Trappe, 
settled  near  this,  and  the  top  is  sowed  with  wheat.  Nearly  west  there 
is  another  of  a  smaller  size,  and  forty  others  scattered  through  the 
plain.  Two  are  also  seen  on  the  bluff  at  the  distance  of  three  miles. 
Several  of  these  mounds  are  almost  conical.  As  the  sward  had  been 
burnt,  the  earth  was  perfectly  naked,  and  I  could  trace  with  ease  any 
unevenness  of  surface,  so  as  to  discover  whether  it  was  artificial  or 
accidental. 

"I  everywhere  observed  a  great  number  of  small  elevations  of  earth  to 
the  height  of  a  few  feet,  at  regular  distances  from  each  other,  and  which 
appeared  to  observe  some  order ;  near  them  I  also  observed  pieces  of 
flint  and  fragments  of  earthen  vessels.  I  concluded  that  a  populous 
town  had  once  existed  here,  similar  to  those  of  Mexico  described  by  the 
first  conquerors.  The  mounds  were  sites  of  temples  or  monuments  to 
great  men. 

"It  is  evident  this  could  never  have  been  the  work  of  thinly-scattered 
tribes.  If  the  human  species  had  at  any  time  been  permitted  in  this 
country  to  have  increased  freely,  and  there  is  every  probability  of  the 
fact,  it  must,  as  in  Mexico,  have  become  astonishingly  numerous.  The 
same  space  of  ground  would  have  sufficed  to  maintain  fifty  times  the 
number  of  the  present  inhabitants,  with  ease,  their  agriculture  having  no 
other  object  than  mere  sustenance.  Among  a  numerous  population,  the 
power  of  the  chief  must  necessarily  be  more  absolute,  and  where  there 


/ 


CEREMONIES  OF  THE  SUN-WORSHIPPERS.  59 

are  no  laws,  degenerates  into  despotism.  This  was  the  case  in  Mexico, 
and  in  the  nations  of  South  America.  A  great  number  of  individuals 
were  at  the  disposal  of  the  chief,  who  treated  them  little  better  than 
slaves.  The  smaller  the  society,  the  greater  the  consequence  of  each 
individual.  Hence,  there  would  not  be  wanting  a  sufficient  number  of 
hands  to  erect  mounds  or  pyramids." 

The  largest  mound  of  the  Cahokia  group,  thus  described  by  Bracken- 
rido-e,  is  now  known  as  Monks'  Mound,  on  account  of  its  having  been 
occupied  in  early  days  by  a  colony  of  monks  of  the  order  of  La  Trappe. 
This  prodigious  temple  site,  as  before  remarked,  is  the  best  represent- 
ative of  its  class  in  the  United  States,  not  only  on  account  of  its  vast 
size,  but  also  because  it  is  the  most  finished  model  of  all  similar  works 
which  can  with  any  degree  of  certainty  be  determined  as  temple  mounds. 
The  Teocallis  of  Mexico  and  the  regions  further  south,  though  finished 
with  stone,  are  of  the  same  form,  with  graded  ascents,  or  flights  of  steps, 
leading  to  the  broad  stage,  or  level  top,  at  one  end  of  which  rose 
another  elevation,  upon  which  stood  the  most  holy  temple  and  sacred 
altars. 

Upon  these  burned  the  perpetual  fire,  to  be  extinguished  only  at  the 
close  of  the  year,  and  rekindled  by  the  sun  himself,  as  his  rising  beams 
were  concentrated  by  the  high  priests,  when  the  new  year  began.  This 
event  was  always  observed  with  the  greatest  solemnity. 

When  the  sacred  flame  expired  upon  the  altars,  with  the  dying  year, 
the  whole  land  was  filled  with  gloom,  and  the  fire  upon  every  domestic 
hearth  must  be  extinguished  also.  Then  the  people  sat  down  in  awful 
suspense  to  watch  for  the  morning.  Possibly  their  father,  the  sun, 
might  be  angry  with  his  children,  and  veil  his  glory  behind  the  clouds  at 
the  coming  dawn.  Then  as  they  thought  of  their  sins  and  bewailed 
their  transgressions,  their  fears  were  expressed  in  loud  lamentations.  But 
as  the  expected  dawn — the  momentous  time — approaches,  all  eyes  are 
turned  towards  the  holy  mount  where  the  now  tireless  altars  stand.  At 
length  the  eastern  sky  begins  to  glow  with  a  golden  light  which  tells 
them  that  their  god  is  near,  and,  while  they  watch,  he  rolls  in  splendor 
from  behind  the  eastern  hills,  and  darts  his  fiery  beams  upon  the  sacred 
place  where  holy  men  are  waiting  to  ignite  anew  the  sacrificial  fires. 
Nor  do  they  wait  in  vain,  for  soon  the  curling  smoke  and  the  signal 
flames  are  seen  by  the  breathless  multitude  which  fill  the  plains  below, 
and  then  one  long,  glad  shout  is  heard,  and  songs  of  joy  salute  the 
bright  new  year.     Swift-footed  messengers  receive  the  new-lit  fire  from 


60  ARCHAEOLOGY. 

the  hands  of  the  priests,  quickly  it  is  distributed  to  the  waiting  throng 
and  carried  exult  ingly  to  their  several  homes,  when  all  begin  the  joyful 
celebration  of  the  feast  of  the  Sun. 

The  peaceful  tribes  who  once  dwelt  in  this  region  of  the  Mississippi 
Valley,  upon  either  shore,  found  no  quarries  of  stone  of  easy  cleavage, 
or  which  could  be  wrought  with  their  simple  tools  for  the  erection  of 
their  edifices.  Doubtless  wood  was  the  only  material  at  their  command, 
or  possibly  sun-dried  brick.  The  dust  of  their  temples  is  gone  with  that 
of  their  builders  ;  their  altars  are  crumbled — the  sacred  fire  is  extin- 
guished, which  the  sun  shall  nevermore  rekindle.  But  the  proud  monu- 
ment of  their  national  solemnities  still  rears  aloft  its  majestic  form  in  the 
midst  of  a  vast  alluvial  plain  of  exhaustless  fertility — a  grand  memorial 
of  days  more  ancient  than  the  last  migration  of  the  Aztec  race  to  the 
plains  of  Anahuac,  who  found  there  the  very  same  structures,  which 
they  appropriated  and  by  which  they  perpetuated  the  worship  of  the 
land  of  their  fathers  as  well  as  that  of  the  people  whom  they  subjugated. 
It  is  not  unreasonable  to  suppose  that  when,  from  its  elevated  summit, 
the  smoke  of  the  yearly  sacrifice  ascended  in  one  vast  column  heaven- 
ward, from  the  great  work  above  described,  that  it  was  the  signal  for 
simultaneous  sacrifices  from  lesser  altars  throughout  the  whole  length  of 
the  great  plain,  in  the  centre  of  which  it  stands,  and  that  the  people 
ui)on  the  Missouri  shore  responded  with  answering  fires  from  those 
hio-h  places  wdiich  once  stood  upon  the  western  bank  of  the  river,  but  are 
now  destroyed. 

Here,  we  may  well  believe  was  the  holy  city,  to  which  the  tribes  made 
annual  pilgrimages  to  celebrate  the  national  feasts  and  sacrifices.  But 
not  here  alone  ;  for  this  vast  homogeneous  race,  one  in  arts  and  worship, 
had  the  same  high  and  holy  places,  though  of  less  imposing  magnitude, 
in  the  valley  of  the  Ohio,  in  Alabama,  and  Mississippi. 

In  south-east  Missouri,  at  New  Madrid,  is  a  similar  work,  surrounded 
by  a  ditch  ten  feet  in  width  and  five  in  depth.  It  is  twelve  hundred  feet 
in  circumference  and  forty  feet  in  height.  Among  the  ruins  of  almost 
every  ancient  town  lying  back  from  the  river,  upon  bayous  and  smaller 
streams,  may  be  found  the  oblong  Temple-mound,  which  is  always  the 
highest  work  of  the  group,  and  commands  a  view  of  the  whole. 

There  are  some  who  profess  to  believe  that  the  Indians  are  the  degen- 
erate sons  of  the  authors  of  these  extensive  and  complicated  works.  But 
when  it  is  remembered  that  their  languages,  which  are  divided  into  many 
groups,  present  very  few  affinities  which  are  common  to  all,  and  the 
dialects  into  which  these  groups  are  further  divided  are,  many  of  them, 


THE  HOUXD-BUILDEKS.  61 

so  distantly  related  as  to  show  that  the  various  tribes  must  have  been 
separated  from  the  parent  stock  in  times  very  remote ;  and  when  we 
take  into  the  account  also,  the  wonderful  unity  of  the  race  of  the  mounds, 
as  displayed  in  their  works  and  worship,  and  the  vast  extent  of  territory 
they  occupied,  it  will  be  seen  that  such  a  supposition  involves  an  antiquity 
of  the  red  race,  which  its  most  ardent  defenders  will  find  difficult  to 
harmonize  with  the  recognized  facts. 

To  my  own  mind  the  evidence  is  clear  that  the  two  peoples  were  as 
distinct  as  the  Greeks  and  Romans.  That  the  exodus  of  the  mound- 
builders  occupied  long  periods  of  time,  is  altogether  probable,  and  com- 
prised several  distinct  migrations,  to  the  south  and  southwest,  which  were 
brought  about  by  the  continued  encroachments  of  the  more  warlike  and 
savage  hordes  from  the  north  and  northwest.  Here  and  there,  no  doubt, 
small  bands  were  enslaved  or  absorbed  by  their  conquerors,  who  adopted 
some  of  the  customs  of  the  subjugated  race,  particularly  those  pertaining 
to  their  worship,  the  traces  of  which  are  often  well  defined, — the  practice 
of  which  was  continued  by  a  few  Indian  tribes  as  late  as  the  beginning  of 
the  present  century. 

If  the  views  here  presented  are  correct,  it  will  be  apparent  that  the 
Temple-mounds  are  invested  with  an  interest  peculiar  to  themselves,  in 
as  much  as  they  give  us  an  insight  to  the  social  and  political  condition  of 
the  ancient  inhabitants  of  the  State  of  Missouri  and  the  Mississippi 
Valley,  which  can  be  gained  from  no  other  class  of  works.  It  will  also 
be  perceived  that  we  have  barely  entered  upon  a  most  interesting  field  of 
research,  which  will  well  repay  a  careful  and  thorough  examination. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

Garden  Mounds.— The  Food  of  the  Pke-historic  Races.— Fish  Probably  one  of  their 
Main  Resources. — The  Use  of  the  Ditches  within  their  City  "Walls.— Domestic 
Animals.— Agriculture.— Religious  Systems.— Dissimilarity  between  Northern 
and  Southern  Tribes  of  Indians.— Traces  ok  Aztec  Culture  among  the  Latter. — 
Vast  Numbers  of  the  Garden  Mounds.— Proofs  of  their  Purpose.— The  Utah 
Mounds.— Interesting  Discoveries.— A  new  Variety  of  Wheat  grown  from  Ker- 
nels found  Therein.— An  Opening  for  Further  Researches. 

The  foregoing  evidences  of  an  ancient  people  swarming  in  prodigious 
numbers  throughout  the  vast  territory  in  which  these  works  abound,  and 
who  had  their  permanent  dwellings  in  towns  and  cities  which  were  well 
arranged  and  constructed  with  no  mean  skill,  suggest  the  most  interest- 
ing question,  How  did  they  subsist?  The  importance  of  this  question  is 
realized  when  we  remember  that  it  lies  at  the  foundation  of  their  whole 
social  fabric ;  and  in  fact,  once  determined,  the  answer  becomes  one  of 
the  chief  exponents  of  their  physical  condition,  intellectual  capacity  and, 
in  a  good  degree,  of  their  moral  status  as  well.  Many  of  the  staple  arti- 
cles of  food  upon  which  all  civilized  nations  depend  for  subsistence  are 
only  to  be  procured  by  intelligent  labor,  guided  by  a  plan  and  forethought 
which  are  the  result  of  a  more  or  less  extended  observation  of  nature's 
laws. 

Here  were  large  cities  ;  then  here  also  must  have  been  trade  and  com- 
merce of  some  sort.  Merchandise  may  not  have  been  bartered  for  gold 
and  silver,  but  more  likely — as  was  the  case  with  the  Peruvians — the 
products  of  the  field,  the  fold,  or  the  chase,  were  exchanged  for  those 
of  the  workshop  and  domestic  handicraft.  Again  :  their  means  of  sup- 
port must  have  been  so  certain  and  reliable,  and  withal  so  abundant,  that 
large  numbers  of  the  people  could  be  empk^ed  continuously  upon  those 
monuments  of  their  industry  which  they  have  left  behind  for  our  admira- 
tion. The  probability  that  fish  formed  no  inconsiderable  item  of  their 
food  supply  has  already  been  suggested.  The  name  of  our  great  river, 
which  it  is  thought  has  come  down  to  us  from  their  time— Nemesi-sipu, 
which  means  River  of  Fish — if  it  be  true,  bears  witness  to  this.  The 
prodigious  shell  heaps  along  the  southern  coast,  from  Florida  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Mississippi,  may  also  be  noticed  as  evidence  of  the  fact 
that  they  were  not  unskillful  fishermen.  These  accumulations  of 
the  refuse  of  their  kitchens  have  often  proved  peculiarly  interesting 
and   instructive,   inasmuch   as   they  abound  in  numerous  relics    which, 


TOWNS  OF  PRE-HISTOEIC  AMERICANS.  63 

under  other  circumstances  would  have  been  destroyed.  The  shell  heaps 
of  the  Baltic  coast  are  complete  zoological  museums  of  the  fauna 
of  the  period  when  they  were  formed,  containing,  as  they  do,  the 
bones  of  many  animals  long  since  extinct  in  those  regions,  and  pre- 
senting also  the  bones  of  the  few  domestic  animals  which  were  the  com- 
panions  of  man  in  that  remote  period. 

The  most  important  sites  of  the  towns  of  the  pre-historic  Americans 
are  found  upon  the  shores  of  lakes  or  banks  of  rivers,  and  generally — 
though  not  always — contiguous  to,  or  upon  extensive  areas  ot  fertile 
land.  We  are  not  compelled  to  suppose,  however,  that  they  were  always 
influenced  by  agricultural  considerations  in  the  location  of  their  permanent 
homes,  for  the  ruins  of  some  towns  have  been  observed  upon  the  sandy 
beaches  of  lakes,  and  where,  too,  there  was  no  fertile  land  near,  which 
was  suitable  for  agricultural  purposes.  It  is,  therefore,  natural  to  sup- 
pose that  the  inhabitants  of  towns  so  situated  were  fishermen. 

The  wide,  deep  ditches  on  the  inside  walls  of  some  of  their  enclosures 
have  called  forth  much  speculation  as  to  their  purpose.  It  has  generally 
been  assumed  that  the  walls  which  enclosed  their  towns  were  erected 
for  defensive  purposes.  But  the  puzzle  has  been  about  the  location 
of  the  ditch  alonsr  the  base  of  the  wall  within  the  enclosures.  According 
to  all  our  notions  of  warfare,  the  ditch — to  serve  any  defensive  purpose 
— should  have  been  outside  the  walls.  Moreover,  many  of  the  walled 
towns  were  so  situated  in  valleys,  which  were  overlooked  by  the  near 
hills  which  surrounded  them,  as  to  be  totally  incapable  of  defense  in  any 
kind  of  known  warfare.  The  theory,  therefore,  that  this  inside  ditch 
was  one  of  their  means  of  defense,  seems  hardly  satisfactory.  I  have 
somewhere  met  with  the  statement  that  there  was  a  tradition  to 
the  effect  that  the  ditches  were  receptacles  for  water,  or  rather, 
artificial  channels  for  wTater  conducted  from  the  natural  streams  near 
which  the  towns  were  located,  thereby  furnishing  the  inhabitants  with  a 
constant  and  flowing  supply.  Without  stopping  to  discuss  the  question, 
it  may  be  remarked  that  the  idea  seems  altogether  probable,  and  their 
construction  for  such  a  purpose  a  very  natural  thing  to  do,  while  the 
control  of  the  stream,  by  gates  and  locks, would  require  no  greater  en- 
gineering skill  than  they  have  displayed  in  their  more  durable  works. 
They  would  also  have  been  specially  adapted  to  the  culture  of  fish,  or 
they  may  have  been  the  receptacles  for  their  winter's  supply.  Speculative 
as  the  above  may  appear,  it  is  certainly  as  rational  as  the  notion  that 
the  inside  ditch  contributed  in  any  way  to  their  defense  against  the 
attacks  of  their  foes. 


64  ARCHEOLOGY. 

What  sort  of  domestic  animals,  if  any,  were  reared  by  the  ancient 
inhabitants  of  Missouri,  we  have  no  knowledge  ;  but  there  can  be  very 
little  doubt  that  game  was  abundant  and  that  they  were  successful  in  the 
chase.  There  is  satisfactory  evidence  that  the  huge  Mastodon  was  their 
cotemporary  whose  bones  are  so  abundant  in  our  alluvial  plains  ;  and  also 
that  he  was  conquered  and  slain  by  their  seemingly  feeble  weapons.  I 
have  myself  exhumed  from  the  ruins  of  one  of  those  towns  fragments  of 
the  vertebral  column  of  the  buffalo. 

However  all  this  may  have  been,  concerning  their  agricultural  skill, 
we  are  not  left  to  conjecture  ;  and  wTe  may  confidently  assert  that  their 
main  dependence  for  subsistence  was  upon  the  labors  of  the  husbandman. 
They  worshipped  the  sun,  and  invoked  his  benign  influence  upon  the 
occurrence  of  the  great  annual  festival  when  their  crops  were  sown  in  the 
spring;  and  when  these  were  gathered,  in  the  autumn  they  offered  up 
the  first  fruits  to  him  as  lord  of  the  harvest. 

That  this  was  their  custom  we  may  with  confidence  assume  ;  nor  is  it, 
indeed,  mere  assumption.     The  largest  of  these  structures — the  Temple 
Mounds — are  found  to  be  precisely  similar  in  form  and  character  to  those 
of  Mexico  ;  and  the  Spanish  historians  have  given  the  fullest  accounts  of 
the  manner  in  which  their  religious  exercises  were  performed  upon  their 
summits,  or  in  the  temples  which  crowned  the  Teocallis.      And  as  the  be- 
lief prevails  that  the  builders  of  these  were  of  the  same  race  as  the  Mound- 
builders,  and  probably  their  descendants,  it  becomes  almost  certain  that 
structures  of  the  same  form  in  both  countries  were  erected  for  the  same 
uses  and  ceremonies.     If  it  be  true,  as  we  believe,  that   when  the  great 
majority  of  the  race  of  the  Mound-builders  had  been  destroyed,  or  driven 
from  their   habitations  in  the  Mississippi   Valley,  some   of  whom    are 
known  to  have  migrated  to  the  southwest— some  remnants  of  the  tribes  re- 
mained, and  were  absorbed  by  their  conquering  successors,  then  we  might 
expect  to  find  some  of  the  customs  of  their  fathers  still  practiced  by  those 
who  were  left  behind ;  and  more  particularly,  those  pertaining  to  their 
religious    rites  and    manner    of  providing   for   their   subsistence.     The 
student  of  the  history  of  the  red  men  cannot  fail  to  notice  the   fact  that 
a  few  of  the  southern  tribes  possessed   traits  and  customs  peculiar  to 
themselves,  and  in  which  they  differed  widely  from   those  of  the  north 
and  east.     The  former  had  a  complicated  and  Avell-arranged  system  of 
religious  worship,  with  the  perpetual  fire   of  the  altars ;  also  a   line  of 
priests  or  prophets,  who  enjoined  seasons  of  rigorous    fasting,  and  con- 
ducted the  exercises  upon  the  occasions  of  their  festivities.     The  former 
can  scarcely  be  said  to  have  had  any   religious   system  or  belief.     Mr. 


ANCIENT  METHODS  OF  AGKICULTUHE.  65 

Adair  has  given  a  detailed  account  of  the  religious  rites  and  ceremonies 
which  were  once  practiced  by  a  few  southern  tribes  among  whom  he  re- 
sided for  many  years  ;  and  so  impressed  was  he  with  their  imposing  and 
multifarious  ceremonials  that  he  believed  they  must  have  derived  their 
svstem  from  the  Jews. 

The  dissimilarity  between  the  tribes  of  the  south  and  those  of  other  lo- 
calities was  equally  striking  in  their  manner  of  house-building,  sports 
and  Barnes.  The  former  had  fixed  habitations,  in  towns  with  streets  and 
public  squares,  and  a  love  of  home,  wTith  various  other  characteristics 
which  belong;  to  a  higher  civilization  than  the  nomadic  tribes  of  red  men 
ever  possessed. 

But  perhaps  in  no  one  thing  was  the  dissimilarity  more  strongly  ex- 
pressed than  in  the  methods  of  agriculture.  The  author  quoted  above 
speaks  of  having  seen  deserted  cornfields  seven  miles  in  extent,  and  we 
know  that  they  raised  quite  a  variety  of  crops,  and  in  abundance,  chief 
among  which  was  maize.  Among  the  now  numerous  and  roving  tribes  we 
discover  only  a  methodless  and  scanty  agriculture. 

The  ancient  garden  beds  supposed  to  belong  to  the  Mound-builders, 
which  in  some  instances  are  several  hundred  acres  in  extent,  have  fre- 
quently been  noticed  in  several  of  the  Western  States.  These  are  said 
to  have  been  laid  out  in  straight  parallel  rows  or  drills  across  the  fields  ; 
but  as  none  have  been  found  in  Missouri,  as  far  as  I  am  informed,  the)' 
need  not  be  dwelt  upon  in  this  connection. 

There  are  evidences  of  tilling  the  soil,  of  quite  a  novel  character,  which 
still  exist  in  prodigious  numbers,  not  only  in  Missouri  but  also  in  other 
regions  west  of  the  Mississippi.  I  have  heard  of  very  few  east  of  that 
river.  These  works  consist  of  low  circular  elevations,  generally  two  or 
three  feet  above  the  level  of  the  natural  surface  of  the  soil,  with  diame- 
ters varying  from  ten  to  sixty  feet;  all  are  round,  or  nearly  so,  sloping 
off  gently  around  the  edges.  All  that  I  have  seen  among  the  Ozark  hills 
are  composed  of  black  alluvial  soil,  and  disclosed,  when  excavated,  no 
implement  or  relic  of  any  sort.  Their  presence  may  always  be  detected 
in  cultivated  fields  when  covered  with  growing  crops,  by  the  more  luxuri- 
ant growth  and  deeper  green  of  the  vegetation.  They  abound  in  all  the 
little  valleys  among  the  flinty  hills  of  the  Ozarks,  from  Pulaski  County, 
Missouri,  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  westward  to  the  Colorado  in 
Texas,  and  as  far  north  as  Iowa.  Their  size  in  the  hilly  regions  seems 
to  have  been  determined  by  the  amount  of  rich  vegetable  mold  which 
could  be  scraped  together  in  a  given  spot.  Residence  sites  they  could 
not  have  been,  or  they  would  have  contained  some  relic  of  stone  or  bone, 
5 


66  AUCH^EOLOGY. 

or  fragment  of  pottery,  or  at  least  the  ashes  of  the  family  fire.  To 
enable  the  reader  to  form  some  idea  of  their  prodigious  numbers,  I  can 
do  no  better  than  give  the  remarks  of  Prof.  Forshey,  as  quoted  by  Dr. 
Foster,  in  his  "Pre-historie  Races  of  the  United  States,"  which  I  take  it, 
refer  to  the  same  class. 

Says  Prof.  Forshey  :  "In  my  geological  reconnoisance  of  Louisiana, 
in  1841-2,  I  made  a  pretty  thorough  report  upon  them.  I  afterwards 
gave  a  verbal  description  of  their  extent  and  character  before  the  New 
Orleans  Academy  of  Sciences.  These  mounds  lack  every  evidence  of 
artificial  construction,  based  on  other  human  vestiges.  They  are  nearly 
all  round,  none  angular,  and  have  an  elevation  hemispheroidal,  of  one  foot 
to  five  feet,  and  a  diameter  from  thirty  feet  to  one  hundred  and  forty 
feet.  They  are  numbered  by  millions.  In  many  places  in  the  pine  forests, 
they  are  to  be  seen  nearly  tangent  to  each  other  as  far  as  the  eye  can 
reach,  thousands  being  visible  from  an  elevation  of  a  few  feet.  On  the 
gulf  marsh  margin,  from  the  Vermillion  to  the  Colorado,  they  appear 
barely  visible,  often  flowing  into  one  another,  and  only  elevated  a  few 
inches  above  the  common  level.  A  few  miles  interior  they  rise  to  two 
and  even  four  feet  in  height.  The  largest  I  ever  saw  were  perhaps 
one  hundred,  and  forty  feet  in  diameter  and  five  feet  high.  These 
were  in  Western  Louisiana ;  some  had  abrupt  sides,  though  they 
are  nearly  all  of  gentle  slopes."  He  further  states  that  he  "encount- 
ered hundreds  of  these  mounds  between  Galveston  and  Houston,  and 
between  the  Eed  river  and  Ouicita ;  that  they  were  so  numerous  as  to 
forbid  the  supposition  of  their  having  been  the  foundations  of  human 
habitations  ;  that  the  burrowing  animals  common  to  the  region  piled 
up  no  such  heaps ;  and  finally,  that  the  winds,  while  capable  of 
accumulating  loose  materials,  never  distribute  them  in  the  manner 
above  mentioned."  In  conclusion  he  adds  :  "  In  utter  desperation  I  cease 
to  trouble  myself  about  their  origin  and  call  them  inexplicable  mounds."1 

Fom  all  that  can  be  learned  about  them,  I  see  no  reason  to  doubt  that 
they  were  erected  for  agricultural  purposes,  and  have  therefore  pre- 
sumed to  name  them  Garden  Mounds. 

It  would  seem  perfectly  natural,  in  a  sterile  country,  and  where  the  in- 
habitants had   few   materials    for    artificial  fertilization,  to  gather   into 


1  The  Professor  adds,  that  "  there  is  ample  testimony  that  the  pine  trees  of  the  present 
forests  ante-date  these  mounds."  What  the  testimony  is  he  does  not  say.  If  they  are  the 
work  of  the  Indians,  then  we  must  believe  them  to  have  been  vastly  more  umerous  than 
any  other  facts  hitherto  known  would  lead  us  to  suppose. 


GARDEN  MOUNDS.  67 

heaps  the  thiu  vegetable  mold  upon  the  surface,  thus  increasing  its 
richness  and  capacity  for  retaining  moisture.  But  the  question  may  be 
asked,  why  should  the  same  practice  be  necessary  in  the  prairies  and 
bottom  lands,  the  richness  of  which  is  proverbial  and  inexhaustible. 
For  the  answer,  we  are  not  left  to  conjecture. 

In  the  rich  lowlands  of  the  west,  the  chief  difficulty  is  too  much  mois- 
ture, especially  in  seasons  of  unusual  rain-fall.  This,  the  corn-raisers  in 
the  American  bottom  know  from  repeated  experience.  Hence,  acres  of 
corn  are  often  utterly  ruined  in  such  seasons,  when  planted  upon  low  and 
level  fields  which  have  not  ample  artificial  or  natural  drainage :  when, 
had  the  earth  been  raised  a  few  inches  even  in  drills  or  mounds,  such  as 
have  been  described,  a  good  crop  would  have  been  secured.  An  intelli- 
gent Iowa  planter  informed  me  that  he  had  often  seen  this  demonstrated 
in  corn-fields  which  were  filled  with  these  mounds.  The  low  ground  be- 
tween  them,  if  the  season  were  unusually  rainy,  would  yield  no  returns, 
while  upon  the  mounds  themselves  the  crop  would  be  excellent.  From 
these  considerations,  there  can  be  but  little  doubt  that  the  garden  mounds 
were  raised  for  the  better  cultivation  of  maize,  which  was  doubtless  the 
staple  article  of  ancient  husbandry.  But  we  are  not  to  suppose,  however, 
that  this  was  the  onl}T  kind  of  grain  known  to  the  pre-historic  Americans  ; 
for  evidence  is  not  wanting  that,  in  some  sections  at  least,  they  cultivated 
wheat,  and  deposited  it,  along  with  those  articles  wrhich  were  deemed 
most  precious,  in  the  tombs  of  their  loved  ones.  Thus — thanks  to  their 
affectionate  care  in  the  disposition  of  the  dead, — it  has  been  preserved 
for  hundreds,  perhaps  thousands,  of  years ;  and,  like  the  few  small 
grains  in  the  hand  of  the  Egyptian  mummy,  when  brought  forth  to  the 
sunlight  and  moisture,  has  germinated  and  ripened,  and  furnished 
us  writh  a  variety  unknown  before. 

From  an  interesting  account  of  certain  mounds  in  Utah,  communicated 
by  Mr.  Amasa  Potter  to  the  Eureka  Sentinel,  of  Nevada,  as  copied  by 
The  Western  Review  of  Science  and  Industry,  I  make  the  following 
extracts : 

w  The  mounds  are  situated  on  what  is  known  as  the  Pa3?son  Farm, 
and  are  six  in  number,  covering  about  twenty  acres  of  ground.  They 
are  from  ten  to  eighteen  feet  in  height,  and  from  500  to  1,000  feet 
in  circumference."  "The  explorations  divulged  no  hidden  treasure  so  far, 
but  have  proved  to  us  that  there  once  undoubtedly  existed  here  a  more 
enlightened  race  of  human  beings  than  that  of  the  Indian  who  inhabited 
this  country,  and  whose  records  have  been  traced  back  hundreds  of 
years."     "  While  engaged  in  excavating  one  of  the  larger  mounds,  we 


68  ARCHEOLOGY 

discovered  the  feet  of  a  large  skeleton,  and  carefully  removing  the  hard- 
ened earth  in  which  it  was  embedded,  we  succeeded  in  unearthing  a  large 
skeleton  without  injury.     The  human  framework  measured  six  feet,  six 
inches  in  length,  and  from  appearances  it  was  undoubtedly  that  of  a  male. 
In  the  right  hand  was  a  large  iron  or  steel  weapon,  which  had  been  buried 
with  the  body,  but  which  crumbled  to  pieces  on  handling.     Near  the 
skeleton  we  also  found  pieces    of  cedar  wood,  cut  in  various  fantastic 
shapes,  and  in  a  state  of  perfect  preservation  ;  the  carving  showing  that 
the  people  of  this  unknown  race  were  acquainted  with  the  use  of  edged 
tools.      We  also  found  a  large  stone  pipe,  the  stem  of  which  was  inserted 
between  the  teeth  of  the  skeleton.     The  bowl  of  the  pipe  weighs   five 
ounces,  and  is  made  of  sandstone ;  and  the  aperture  for  tobacco  had  the 
appearance  of  having  been  drilled  out."     "We  found  another  skeleton 
near  that  of  the  above  mentioned,  which  was  not  quite  as  large,  and  must 
be  that  of  a  woman.     There  was  a  neatly  carved  tombstone  near  the 
head  of  this  skeleton.     Close  by,  the  floor   was  covered  with  a  hard 
cement,  to  all  appearances  a  part  of  the  solid  rock,  which,  after  patient 
labor  and  exhaustive  work,  we  succeeded  in  penetrating,  and  found  it 
was  but  the  corner  of  a  box,  similarl}'  constructed,  in  which  we  found 
about  three  pints  of  wheat  kernels,  most  of  which  was  dissolved  when 
brought  in  contact  with  the  air.     A   few  of  the  kernels  found  in  the 
center  of  the  heap  looked  bright,  and  retained  their  freshness  on  being 
exposed.     These  were  carefully  preserved,  and  last  spring  planted  and 
grew  nicely.     We  raised  four  and  a  half  pounds  of  heads  from  these 
grains.     The  wheat  is  unlike  any  other  raised  in  this  country;  and  pro- 
duces a  large  yield.     It  is  the  club  variety  ;  the  heads  are  very  long  and 
hold  very  large  grains."     "  We  find  houses  in  all  the  mounds,  the  rooms 
of  which  are  as  perfect  as  the  day  they  were  built.     All  the  apartments 
are  nicely  plastered,  some  in  white,  others  in  red  color.     Crockery  ware, 
cooking  utensils,  vases — many  of  a  pattern  similar  to  the  present  age  — 
are  also  found.     Upon  one  large  stone  jug  or  vase  can  be  traced  a  per- 
fect delineation  of  the  mountains  near  here  for  a  distance   of  twenty 
miles.      We  have   found   several   millstones  used  for  grinding  corn,  and 
plenty  of  charred  corn-cobs,  with  kernels  not  unlike  what  we  know  as 
yellow  dent  corn.      We  judge  from  our  observations  that  those  ancient 
dwellers  of  our  country  followed  agriculture  for  a  livelihood,  and   had 
many  of  the  arts  and  sciences  known  to  us,  as  we  found  molds  made  of 
clay  for  casting  different  implements,  needles  made  of  deer-horns,  and 
lasts  made  of  stone,  and  which  were  in  good  shape.     We   also  found 
many  trinkets,  such  as  white  stone  beads  and  marbles  as  good  as  made 


THE  UTAH  MOUNDS.  69 

now;  also  small  squares  of  polished  stones  resembling  dominoes,  but  for 
what  use  intended  we  cannot  determine." 

The  above  account  we  see  no  reason  to  discredit,  and  can  only  wish 
that  the  examinations  had  been  more  thorough  and  the  account  more 
explicit  as  to  dimensions  of  rooms  and  other  details.  From  what  is 
stated,  however,  we  conclude  that  the  authors  of  these  works  could  not 
have  belonged  to  the  present  Indian  race,  but  were  undoubtedly  of  the 
mound-building  people  of  the  Mississippi  Valley.  It  is,  at  least,  a  most 
interesting  discovery,  and  they  may  belong  to  a  series  of  structures 
which  shall  yet  reveal  the  history  of  their  migrations.  That  there  were 
two  if  not  three,  distiuct  and  widely  separated  southward  movements, 
in  point  of  time,  of  the  pre-historic  race,  has  already  been  suggested  ;  and 
the  Utah  mounds  may  belong  to  that  class  which  upon  further  investiga- 
tion shall  furnish  the  clue  to  one  of  the  routes  pursued,  and  lead  to  its 
demonstration.  Should  the  conjecture  as  to  their  authorship  be  verified, 
a  new  chapter  of  unusual  interest  in  the  history  of  the  Mound-builders 
will  be  opened  for  our  perusal ;  and  we  may  reasonably  hope  for  much 
valuable  information  concerning  the  character  and  extent  of  their  agri- 
culture, their  esthetic  taste,  and  their  knowledge  of  the  industrial  arts  ; 
and  we  may  find  that,  in  most  respects,  their  social  condition  was  in  no 
wise  inferior  to  that  of  Mexico  and  Peru.  The  wood-carving,  plastered 
and  tinted  walls,  painted  vases,  and  the  presence  of  that  most  precious 
of  all  cereals,  wheat,  are  new  and  striking  evidences  of  a  higher  social 
state  than  we  have  hitherto  thought  possible,  whose  luxury  and  refine- 
ment were  but  the  presage  of  a  nobler  civilization  which  found  its 
realization  and  full  development  in  Central  and  South  America,  or  by 
some  dire  calamity  was  overwhelmed  and  destroyed. 


CHAPTER  IX 

Miscellaneous  Works.— Historical  or  National  Festival  Mounds.— Stone  Struc- 
tures.—Ruins  on  the  Gasconade  River.— Group  near  Louisiana.  Mo.— Some  Indiana 
Relics.— Cremation  Chambers.— Proofs  op  Architectural  Knowledge.— Great 
Canals  Ante-dating  the  Erie.— Ancient  Counterparts  of  Modern  Achievements. 
—Our  Southern  "  Bayous  "  of  Artificial  Origin. 

The  works  to  be  described  under  the  head  of  Historical,  or  National 
Festival  Mounds  have  already  been  noticed.  A  representation  of  one 
of  this  class  is  given  on  page  30.  (Fig.  9.)  It  consists  of  three 
embankments  placed  in  a  triangular  form,  enclosing  a  central  mound 
which  is  also  enclosed  by  a  circle  of  small  elevation.  The,  ends  of 
the  embankments  do  not  meet,  however,  but  narrow  openings  are 
left  at  the  lines  of  intersection,  and  in  these  openings  are  found  small 
truncated  mounds.  Sometimes,  we  are  told,  the  group  is  composed 
of  two  parallel  walls,  but  oftener  of  three,  in  triangular  position 
as  just  described  ;  while  some  have  been  seen  which  had  four  embank- 
ments arranged  in  the  form  of  a  square  ;  all,  however,  containing  the 
central  mound  with  its  enclosing  circle. 

These  groups  have  generally  been  thought  to  be  defensive  works.  As 
far  as  known,  none  have  been  seen  south  of  Missouri,  but  it  is  said  they 
frequently  occur  in  the  States  of  Iowa,  Wisconsin,  Indiana,  and  some  in 
Illinois.  In  the  latter  two  States  the  usual  form  is  square,  while  in  Iowa 
and  Missouri  the  triangular  arrangement  is  most  frequent.  As  the  walls 
are  generally  of  no  great  height,  they  are  among  the  first  to  be  leveled 
by  the  plough.  But,  of  whatever  form  or  size,  there  seems  always  to 
have  been  observed  in  their  construction  a  fixed  rule  in  the  relative  size 
of  the  several  parts,  whose  uniformity  invests  them  with  an  interest 
peculiar  to  themselves.  The  group  figured  on  page  30,  though  found  in 
Iowa,  was  selected  for  description  because  this  form  is  said  to  have  been 
of  most  frequent  occurrence  in  Missouri. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  the  embankments  which  form  the  sides  of 
the  triangle  were  each  one  hundred  and  forty-four  feet  in  length,  and 
respectively  three,  four  and  five  feet  in  height,  and  twelve  feet  in  diame- 
ter. The  sum  of  the  heights  of  the  embankments  is  twelve  feet,  which 
is  the  exact  height  of  the  central  mound.  These  multiplied  together 
equal  the  length  of  the  embankments — one  hundred  and  forty-four  feet. 
In  all  which  have  been  described,  the  same  relation  of  the  several  parts 
is  observed.     The  embankments  are  always  of  equal  length,  but  never 


HISTORICAL  OR  NATIONAL  FESTIVAL  MOUNDS.  71 

of  the  same  height,  while  the  sum  of  the  heights — whether  the  group  is 
composed  of  three  or  four — always  equals  the  height  of  the  central 
mound,  and  the  product  of  both  gives  the  length  of  the  embankments. 
The  tradition  concerning  them  is,  that  they  were  erected  to  perpetuate 
the  union  of  two  or  more  tribes  ;  the  number  forming  the  compact  is 
recorded  by  the  number  of  embankments,  and  their  relative  power  by 
the  height  of  each.  The  circle  in  the  center  of  the  enclosure  was  known 
as  the  festival  circle,  and  the  small  mounds  in  the  angles,  or  openings, 
were  matrimonial  mounds.  To  these  works  the  confederated  tribes 
made  annual  visits,  to  celebrate  the  event  of  their  union  with  singing, 
dancing  and  feasting,  and  a  great  variety  of  festive  games,  which  were 
performed  within  the  enclosure.  The  national  union  thus  celebrated  was 
further  cemented  on  these  occasions  by  intermarriages  among  the  mem- 
bers of  the  different  tribes,  which  took  place  at  the  matrimonial  mounds. 
The  central  mound  was  known  as  the  union  mound,  and  on  festival  occa- 
sions was  occupied  conjointly  by  the  chiefs  and  prophets  of  each  nation, 
who  presided  during  the  celebration.  Concerning  the  relative  age  of 
this  class  of  works  nothing  is  known,  and  though  the  tradition  above 
given  may  be  regarded  as  having  no  weight  or  importance,  it  is  quite 
clear  that  all  conjecture  concerning  them  is  equally  valueless. 

The  early  writers  upon  the  antiquities  of  Missouri  make  frequent  men- 
tion of  the  ruins  of  buildings  which  were  constructed  of  unhewn  stone, 
and  whose  walls  were  said  to  have  been  built  up  with  creditable  skill  and 
strength,  though  without  durable  mortar,  if  indeed  any  were  used. 

Of  this  kind  of  structure,  the  examples  are  very  rare  east  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi. Whether  any  arc  now  to  be  found  in  any  good  degree  of  preser- 
vation is  quite  doubtful.  I  will  present,  therefore,  such  facts  concerning 
them  as  can  be  gleaned  from  the  most  trustworthy  accounts  of  early 
writers.  The  first  to  be  noticed  are  thus  described  by  Mr.  Lewis  C. 
Beck,  who,  after  speaking  of  the  pine  timber  which  abounded  fifty  or 
sixty  years  ago  along  the  Gasconade  river,  and  the  saw  mills  erected 
upon  its  banks  by  which  the  lumber  was  prepared  for  the  St.  Louis 
market,  goes  on  to  state  that  "near  the  saw  mills,  and  at  a  short  dis- 
tance from  the  road  leading  from  them  to  St.  Louis,  are  the  ruins  of  an 
ancient  town.  It  appears  to  have  been  regularly  laid  out,  and  the  dimen- 
sions of  the  squares,  streets,  and  some  of  the  houses  can  yet  be  discov- 
ered. Stone  walls  are  found  in  different  parts  of  the  area,  which  are 
frequently  covered  by  large  heaps  of  earth.  Again,  a  stone  work  exists, 
as  I  am  informed  by  Gen.  Ashley,  about  ten  miles  below  the  mills.     It 


72  ARCHEOLOGY. 

is  on  the  west  side  of  the  Gasconade,  and  is  about  25  or  30  feet  square; 
and,  although  at  present  in  a  dilapidated  condition,  appears  to  have  been 
built  with  an  uncommon  degree  of  regularity.  It  is  situated  on  a  high 
bald  cliff,  which  commands  a  fine  and  extensive  view  of  the  country  on 
all  sides.  From  this  stone  work  is  a  small  foot-path  running  a  devious 
course  down  the  cliff  to  the  entrance  of  a  cave,  in  which  was  found  a 
quantity  of  ashes.     The  mouth  of  the  cave  commands  an  easterly  view. 

"It  would  be  useless  at  this  time  to  hazard  an  opinion  with  regard  to 
the  uses  of  this  work,  or  the  beings  who  erected  it.  In  connection  with 
those  of  a  similar  kind  which  exist  on  the  Mississippi,  it  forms  an  inter- 
esting subject  for  speculation.  They  evidently  form  a  distinct  class  of 
ancient  works,  of  which  I  have,  as  j-et,  seen  no  description." 

Another  group,  described  by  the  same  author,  was  located  about  two 
miles  southwest  of  the  town  of  Louisiana.  "  They  are  built  of  stone,  with 
great  regularity,  and  their  site  is  high  and  commanding,  from  which  I  am 
led  to  infer  that  they  were  intended  for  places  of  defence.  Works  of  a 
similar  kind  are  found  on  Buffalo  creek,  and  on  the  Osage  river.  They 
certainly  form  a  class  of  antiquities  entirely  distinct  from  the  walled 
towns,  fortifications,  barrows,  or  mounds.  The  regularity  of  their  form 
and  structure  favors  the  conclusion  that  they  were  the  work  of  a  more 
civilized  race  than  those  who  erected  the  former — a  race  familiar  with 
the  rules  of  architecture,  and  perhaps  with  a  perfect  system  of  warfare." 
The  description  of  those  works  located  near  Louisiana  is  accompanied 
by  a  ground-plan  or  diagram  made  by  the  Rev.  S.  Giddings,  a  former 
clergyman  of  St.  Louis,  of  which  Fig.  1    is  an  exact  copy. 

DESCRIPTION  OF  ACCOMPANYING  DIAGRAM. 

a,  6,  c,  d.  outer  wall,  18  inches  in  thickness;  length,  56  feet;  breadth,  22  feet.  The 
walls  are  built  of  rough,  unhewn  stone,  and  appear  to  have  been  constructed  with 
remarkable  regularity. 

2?  is  a  chamber  three  feet  in  width,  which  was  no  doubt  arched  the  whole  way,  as 
some  part  of  the  arch  still  remains.  It  is  made  in  the  manner  represented  at  3,  and  is 
seldom  more  than  five  feet  above  the  surface  of  the  ground :  but  as  it  is  filled  with 
rubbish  it  is  impossible  to  say  what  was  its  original  height. 

F  is  a  chamber  four  feet  wide,  and  in  some  places  the  remains  of  a  similar  arch  still 
remain. 

G  is  a  chamber  12  feet  in  width,  at  the  extremity  of  which  are  the  remains  of  a  furnace. 

If  is  a  large  room  with  two  entrances,  I  and  K.  It  is  covered  with  a  thick  growth  of 
trees.  The  walls  are  at  present  from  two  to  five  feet  in  height.  One  of  the  trees  in  the 
work  is  two  feet  in  diameter.     2  is  a  smaller  work  about  80  rods  due  east  from  the  former. 

A  and  C  are  two  chambers  without  any  apparent  communication  with  B. 

B  is  a  room  nearly  circular,  with  an  entrance. 

In  the  apartment  G,  human  bones  have  been  found. 


mm 


^P^'^W^w-     Him 


Jss 


^§*l£b"-     .3.    ^"f 


Fig.  I. Ancient  Works  near  Louisiana,  Mo. 


74  ARCHAEOLOGY. 

The  stone  edifices  thus  described  seem  to  have  been  peculiar  to  Mis- 
souri alone,  as  I  find  no  notices  of  existing  similar  works  in  any  other 
locality,  unless  those  described  by  Mr.  Brown  in  his  Western  Gazetteer 
were  such.  Those  were  found  near  the  town  of  Harrisonville,  Franklin 
Co.,  in  the  State  of  Indiana.  They  were  located  on  the  neighboring 
hills,  northeast  of  the  town.  The  ruins  of  quite  a  number  were  observed, 
all  of  which,  it  is  stated,  were  built  of  rough,  unhewn  stone.  The  walls 
were  levelled  nearly  to  the  foundations,  and  covered  with  soil,  brush  and 
full-grown  trees.  Mr.  Brown  informs  us  that  "after  clearing  away  the 
earth,  roots  and  rubbish  from  one  of  them,  he  found  it  to  have  been 
anciently  occupied  as  a  dwelling.  It  was  about  twelve  feet  square.  At 
one  end  of  the  building  was  a  regular  hearth,  on  which  were  yet  the 
ashes  and  coals  of  the  last  fire  its  owners  had  ever  enjoyed,  for  around 
the  hearth  were  the  decayed  skeletons  of  eight  persons,  of  different  ages, 
from  a  small  child  to  the  head  of  a  family.  Their  feet  were  all  pointing 
towards  the  hearth,  which  fact  suggests  the  probability  that  they  were 
murdered  while  asleep."  The  bottom  lands  in  this  region  are  said  to 
have  abounded  in  mounds  similar  to  those  described  elsewhere,  and  con- 
taining human  bones,  implements  of  stone,  and  a  superior  article  of  glazed 
pottery.  A  skull  taken  from  one  of  them  was  found  pierced  with  a  flint 
arrow  which  was  still  sticking  in  the  wound,  and  was  about  six  inches 
long.  The  stone  dwellings  described  by  Mr.  Brown  were  evidently  of 
inferior  construction  to  those  of  Missouri.  The  authors  of  the  latter 
showed  no  mean  skill  in  architecture  ;  while  the  rough  and  ruder  walls 
of  the  Indiana  structures,  their  diminutive  size,  along  with  the  fact  of 
the  whole  family  lying  together  on  the  floor,  would  indicate  a  social  con- 
dition but  little  removed  from  barbarism.  Whether  their  builders 
belonged  to  the  race  of  the  mounds  in  the  valleys  near,  is  not  certain, 
and  the  menus  of  deciding  the  question  are  doubtless  destroyed. 

Upon  a  recent  visit  to  the  site  of  the  works  near  Lousiana,  Mo., 
described  by  Mr.  Beck,  I  found  only  a  confused  heap  of  stones,  the  walls 
thrown  down  and  the  stones  scattered  in  every  direction.  The  view  from 
the  summit  of  the  hill  where  the  building  once  stood  was  very  extensive 
and  lovely.  Mr.  Levi  Pettibone,  now  ninety-seven  years  of  age,  and 
Mr.  Edwin  Draper, — both  gentlemen  having  resided  in  the  neigborhood 
of  the  work. for  nearly  half  a  century — confirmed  the  account  given  by 
Mr.  Beck,  in  every  important  particular.1 

1  Mr.  Stillman,  the  obliging  and  gentlemanly  proprietor  of  the  Laclede  Hotel  at  Lou- 
isiana, also  gave  me  much  valuable  information.    He  stated  that  formerly  there  existed 


STONE  STRUCTURES. 


75 


In  the  February  number  of  the  Western  Review  of  the  present  year, 
appears  quite  a  lengthy  article,  by  Judge  E.  P.  West,  containing  an 
account  of  the  examination  of  several  mounds  near  the  Missouri  river 
which  contained  "  buried  chambers,  or  vaults,  built  of  stone,  compactly 
and  regularly  laid."  The  stones,  which  are  undressed  on  the  inside,  are 
laid  horizontally,  and  apparently  have  been  selected  with  great  care,  the 
walls  presenting,  when  the  earth  is  removed,  a  smooth  inner  face.  The 
chambers  were  generally  of  uniform  size,  being  about  eight  and  one  half 
feet  square  and  four  feet  in  height.  Each  had  an  opening,  or  doorway, 
towards  the  south,  two  and  a  half  feet  in  width.  The  walls  were  about 
eighteen  inches  in  width  at  the  top,  and  live  feet  at  the  base.  Some  are 
described  as  containing  "  a  large  quantity  of  burnt  human  and  animal 
bones,  burnt  clay,  wood  ashes  and  charred  wood,  all  intermingled  and 
extending  entirely  over  the  floor,  at  one  point  to  the  depth  of  eight 
inches."  Judge  West  seems  to  favor  the  opinion  that  they  were  used  for 
dwellings,  before  the  dead  were  interred  in  them.  This  was  possibly  the 
case;  but  the  commingled  mass  of  burnt  bones,  charred  wood,  and 
burnt  clay  to  the  depth  of  several  inches,  would  point  to  funeral  rites  by 
cremation.  A  house  eight  and  a  half  feet  square  and  four  feet  high 
would  be  a  very  confined  habitation  for  a  family  of  ordinary  size.  It 
seems  more  in  consonance  with  the  facts  as  stated  to  suppose  them  to 
have  been  furnaces  for  consuming  the  dead  by  burning.  The  Judge 
computes  their  age  to  be  about  two  thousand  years.  Other  and  similar 
structures  have  been  described  to  me,  and  the  localities  of  their  sites 
named,  by  respectable  persons  who  claimed  to  have  opened  them,  of 
much  larger  dimensions  than  any  above  described,  and  which  are  stated 
to  have  contained  large  quantities  of  human  bones  and  implements  of 
stone.  One,  I  was  told,  contained  a  vault  at  least  one  hundred  and  fifty 
feet  in  length,  fifty  feet  wide  and  above  twelve  feet  in  height.     Another, 

upon  his  land,  at  a  distance  of  about  half  a  mile  from  the  work  described,  a  stone  heap 
of  quite  large  dimensions,  similar  in  its  appearance  to  those  noticed  in  a  previous  chap- 
ter and  conjectured  to  have  been  of  Indian  origin.  Having  occasion  to  use  the  stones 
for  the  walls  of  a  cistern,  he  caused  them  to  be  removed.  At  the  bottom  of  the  pile  he 
found  a  level  floor,  composed  of  flat  stones  of  variousSizes.  but  joined  together,  as  he 
expressed  it,  as  closely  and  evenly  as  any  mason  could  do  it  to-day.  From  these,  and 
similar  facts,  I  am  led  to  believe  that  possibly  many  of  those  which  appear  outwardly  to 
be  simply  piles  of  stones  loosely  thrown  together,  and  which  are  to  be  counted  by 
thousands  upon  the  hills  in  various  parts  of  the  State,  may  be  the  remains  of  the  un- 
cemented  walls  of  ancient  habitations.  And  this  conviction  receives  additional  strength 
from  the  fact  that  recent  explorations  of  many  earthen  mounds  have  disclosed  a  vault, 
walled  and  arched  with  stone, — some  of  large  dimensions, — with  contents  similar  to 
those  of  Utah. 


76  AKCH^EOLOGY. 

much  smaller,  was  beautifully  arched  with  stone.  At  the  time  the  nar- 
rator saw  it,  it  was  cleared  of  the  decayed  skeletons  and  was  used  as  a 
dairy -ho  use.  The  two  just  mentioned  were  in  Missouri,  and  distant 
from  each  other  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles.  Again  the  question  recurs 
Who  built  them ;  and  whence  their  architectural  skill  and  knowledge? 

Says  Dr.  Foster:  "A  broad  chasm  is  to  be  spanned  before  we  can 
link  the  Mound  Builders  to  the  North  American  Indians."  There  are 
some  who  attempt  to  do  this,  but  the  difficulties  which  beset  the  task  are 
insurmountable  to  those  who  have  examined,  with  any  degree  of  thorough- 
ness, the  evidences  of  the  vastly  superior  civilization  of  the  people  who 
erected  the  stone  structures  found  in  Missouri,  to  that  of  the  North 
American  Indians,  during  any  known  period  of  their  history ;  and  to 
such,  the  belief  that  they  were  the  authors  of  the  multitudinous  monu- 
ments of  the  Missouri  and  Mississippi  valleys,  becomes  altogether 
improbable.  But  if  all  this  is  inconclusive  of  the  proposition  we  main- 
tain, what  shall  be  said  of  the  ancient  canals,  some  of  which  still  remain, 
the  indubitable  evidences  of  an  extended  inland  communication  between 
lakes,  rivers  and  bayous,  and  also  of  an  industry,  enterprise  and  skill 
which  would  be  creditabe  to  the  scientific  engineers  of  our  own  times? 
In  many  of  the  great  achievments  of  this  age  of  ours  we  are  only  recov- 
ering the  knowledge  and  wisdom  of  the  lon^-forgotten  past. 

When  Gov.  Clinton,  of  New  York,  first  proposed  the  construction  of 
the  Erie  Canal,  the  idea  was  greeted  with  scorn  and  derision  ;  and  as  the 
work  progressed  it  wTas  characterized  as  "Clinton's  Ditch,"  the  opposers 
of  the  scheme  little  dreaming  that  it  was  to  become  the  great  channel  for 
the  commerce  of  the  nation ;  connecting,  as  it  does,  the  great  chain  of 
lakes  in  the  far  Northwest  with  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  And  not  until  a 
thousand  freighted  boats  began  to  pour  the  rich  treasures  of  the  prairies 
into  the  lap  of  the  East,  was  the  far-seeing  wisdom  of  its  projector  fully 
vindicated.  Then  men  began  to  point  to  it  with  boasting  congratulation, 
as  an  evidence  of  the  rapid  and  surprising  progress  which  we  of  the 
nineteenth  century  were  achieving.  But  alas  for  human  pride  !  Ave  are 
but  slowly  learning  again  what  other  nations,  who  lived  in  the  morning 
of  the  historic  period,  knew,  and  the  world  had  long  ago  forgotten. 

Again,  when  the  French  began  the  Suez  Canal,  "all  the  world  won- 
dered "  at  the  grandeur  of  the  enterprise.  But  they  soon  found  that 
they  were  only  clearing  out  the  sands  of  three  or  four  thousand  years' 
accumulation  from  the  old  pathway  of  the  commerce  of  the  Pharaohs, 
who  had  built  the  canal  when  Eg}'pt  was  the  storehouse  of  the  nations. 
These  came  through  the  canal  to  her  door,  in  great  ships  laden  with  the 


SOUTHERN  "BAYOUS"  OF  ARTIFICIAL  ORIGEST.  77 

riches  of  the  Orient,  which  they  exchanged  for  corn,  and  then  sailed 
hack  from  the  Nile,  and  through  the  Red  Sea  to  their  homes  again. 
But  at  length  the  scepter  departed  from  the  throne  of  the  Pharaohs  ;  the 
temple  colleges,  to  which  the  philosophers  of  Greece  resorted  for  instruc- 
tion six  hundred  years  before  Christ,  were  closed,  and  crumbled  in  decay 
— the  desert  sands  swept  over  their  ruins ;  the  canal  was  filled  and 
forgotten  through  all  the  long  dark  ages.  At  length  commerce  revives, 
and  men  begin  to  dig  canals  again,  with  vain-glorious  pride. 

It  is  with  nations  as  with  individuals  who  are  taken  with  some  deadly 
disease,  from  which  they  barely  escape  with  their  lives.  Though  their 
strength  returns,  their  memory  is  utterly  oblivious  to  all  they  have  ever 
learned  from  books,  and  so  they  must  begin  with  the  alphabet  once  more. 
Nations  have  their  deadly  maladies  from  which  few  recover,  and  for  those 
which  do,  how  long  and  unpromising  is  the  tutilage  of  their  second  child- 
hood. History  is  repeated  here.  The  pre-historic  people  of  Missouri 
were  not  only  great  in  populous  towns,  in  their  agriculture,  in  their  huge 
piles  of  earth  and  embankments  and  buildings  of  stone,  but  they,  too, 
were  canal-builders.  With  surprising  skill  they  developed  a  system  of 
internal  navigation,  so  connecting  the  lakes  and  bayous  of  the  southern 
interior  of  the  State,  that  the  products  of  the  soil  found  a  ready  outlet 
to  the  great  river.  The  remains  of  these  artificial  water-courses  have 
been  frequently  alluded  to  by  travelers  who  have  seen  them,  but  never 
thoroughly  explored.  Dr.  G.  C.  Swallow,  while  at  the  head  of  the 
Geological  Survey,  called  attention  to  them,  and  described  one  which  was 
"fifty  feet  wide  and  twelve  feet  deep."  For  the  fullest  description  of 
this  class  of  works,  I  am  indebted  to  Geo.  W.  Carleton,  Esq.,  of 
Gayoso  ;  who,  in  response  to  a  note  of  enquiry, — in  addition  to  many 
*  interesting  facts  concerning  a  great  number  of  ancient  structures  in 
Pemiscot  County, — kindly  furnished  the  following  account,  which  I  give 
in  his  own  words  : 

"Besides  our  Mounds,  we  can  boast  of  ancient  canals.  Col.  John  H. 
Walker  informed  me  that  before  the  earthquakes,  these  canals — we  call 
them  bayous  now — showed  very  plainly  their  artificial  origin.  Since  the 
country  has  become  settled,  the  land  cleared  up,  the  embankments  along 
those  water  courses  have  been  considerably  leveled  down.  One  of  these 
canals  is  just  east  of  the  town  of  Gayoso.  It  now  connects  the  flats  of 
Bi°-  Lake  with  the  Mississippi  river.  Before  the  bank  crumbled  off, 
taking  in  Pemiscot  bayou,  it  connected  this  bayou  with  the  waters  of  Big 
Lake.  Another  stream,  that  Col.  Walker  contended  was  artificial,  is 
what  we  now  call  Cypress  Bend  Bayou.     He  said  that  it  wns  cut  so  as  to 


78  AKCELEOLOGY. 

connect  the  waters  of  Cushion  Lake  with  a  bayou  running  into  Big  Lake. 
Cushion  Lake  lies  in  the  northern  part  of  Pemiscot  county.  The  canal 
was  cut  from  the  flats  of  the  lake  on  the  south  side,  about  three  miles 
into  Big  Lake  bayou.  By  this  chain  of  canals,  lakes  and  bayous,  these 
ancient  mound-builders 'and   canal-diggers  could  have  an  inland  naviga- 

CO  o 

tion  from  the  Mississippi  river  at  Gayoso,  into  and  through  Big  Lake 
bayou  and  the  canal  into  Cushion  Lake,  through  Cushion  Lake  and  a 
bayou  into  Collins  Lake  or  the  open  bay,  thence  north  through  a  lake 
and  bayou  some  eight  miles,  where  another  canal  tapped  this  water  course 
and  run  east  into  the  Mississippi  river  again,  some  five  miles  below  the 
town  of  New  Madrid.  Col.  Walker,  in  referring  to  these  water-courses, 
spoke  of  them  only  as  canals.  They  show  even  now  a  huge  bank  of 
earth,  such  as  would  be  made  by  an  excavation,  on  the  side  opposite  to 
the  river,  so  that  in  case  of  overflow  the  water  from  the  river  would  not 
wash  the  excavated  dirt  back  into  the  canal."  x 

Although  in  the  foregoing  account  the  present  depth  and  width  are  not 
given,  from  it  and  from  the  reports  of  others,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that 
the  ancient  inhabitants  had  constructed  with  a  skill  which  would  do  no 
discredit  to  our  own  engineers,  a  system  of  connecting  canals  which 
must  have  been  necessitated  by  an  extended  internal  trade,  and  which 
required  boats  of  respectable  dimensions.  The  evidences  of  work  of 
such  magnitude  as  canals,  widen  the  "broad  chasm"  which  is  to  be 
spanned  before  we  can  link  the  Mound-builders  to  the  North  American 
Indians,  until  it  becomes  an  impassable  gulf. 

1  In  reply  to  a  subsequent  note  of  inquiry  as  to  the  length  of  this  water-course,  in- 
cluding canal  and  bayou,  Mr.  Carlton  estimates  it  to  be  about  seventy  miles. 


CHAPTER  X. 


Pottery.— Superiority  of  Pre-Historic  American  Wares  over  Those  of  Europe.— 
Imitations  of  Living  Objects— The  Materials  Used.— Reliquaries.— Skulls  En- 
closed in  Earthen  Vessels.— Bowls  with  Ornamental  Heads— Probabilities 
of  Higher  Art  Among  the  Ancients. 

The  number  of  vessels  of  pottery  which  have  been  taken  from  the 
mounds  in  Missouri  is  prodigious,  and  almost  endless  in  variety.  In  an 
instance  which  fell  under  my  own  observation,  nearly,  if  not  quite,  one 
thousand  pieces  were  obtained  from  a  single  burial  mound  ;  and  these 
were  of  various  sizes  and  great  diversity  of  form  and  workmanship. 
Some  of  the  most  characteristic  ex- 
amples will  be  presented  as  we  pro- 
ceed. The  skill  displayed  by  the 
pre-historic  Americans  in  everything 
they  manufactured  from  common  clay 
is  vastly  superior  to  that  of  the 
ancient  civilizations  of  Europe,  to 
which,  in  other  respects  many  strik- 
ing similarities  may  be  traced. 

From  the  fact  that  few  articles 
which  are  the  products  of  human 
ingenuity  and  skill  are  more  enduring 
than  earthen-ware,  this  class  of  anti- 
quities, to  the  archaeologist,  is  very 
interesting  and  instructive.  The  skill 
and  taste  displayed  in  its  various  im- 
itative forms,  in  outline  and  deco- 
ration, give  us  an  insight  into  some 

phases  of  the  domestic  life,  social  condition  and  aesthetic  taste  of  ancient 
peoples,  which  can  be  derived  from  no  other  source.  Fragments  of 
pottery,  to  the  archaeologist,  therefore,  are  the  imperishable  leaves  of  a 
book,  inscribed  by  the  truthful  hand  of  humanity,  in  legible  characters, 
with  the  precious  records  of  those  feelings  and  tender  sentiments  which 
are  recorded  nowhere  else,  and  which  need  no  translation.  Their  value 
is  enhanced  so  much  the  more  by  the  fact  that  we  possess  specimens  of 
these  records  from  every  quarter  of  the  globe,  and  coeval  with  the  remotest 
civilizations. 


Fig.  I. 


80 


ARCHEOLOGY. 


Fig,  2. 


The  successful  attempts  of  the  ancient  Americans  to  imitate  the  forms 

of  beasts  and  birds,  which  they  saw  every  day  around  them,  evince  a 

contemplation,  observation  and  affectionate  communion  with  nature  which 

fills  us  with  surprise. 

The  drinking  vessel  molded  into  the 

form   of  an    owl,   a   representation    of 

which   is  given  in  Fig.  1,     seems,  by 

its  frequent  occurrence  in  the  mounds, 

to    have  been  a   favorite  model.     The 

most    common    form    is    the  universal 

gourd-shaped     water    jug    (  Fig.    2 ). 

These  are  of  various  sizes,  the  largest 

being  from   eight  to  ten  inches  high, 

and  the  largest  diameter  not  exceeding 

eight  inches.     Sometimes  the   body  of 

the  jug  is    more   globular   on  the  top 

than  this  figure  shows.    Fig.  3  presents 

a  form   of  water  jug  which,  as  far  as 

my  own  observation   extends,  is   much 

more  rare  than  the  proceeding.     The  engraving  wTas  made  some  years 

a^o  :  I  have  since  seen  a  sufficient  number  to  prove  that  the  reconstruction 

of  the  neck  is  correct.     From  the  greater  size  of  the  neck  I  am  led  to 

believe  that  it  was  an  ordinary  drinking-vessel ;  while  the  form  repre- 
sented in  Fig.  2  is  more  properly  that  of  a 
water-cooler,  which,  when  filled,  was  hung  up 
until  the  water  was  reduced  in  temperature 
by  its  slow  evaporation  through  the  pores 
of  the  vessel,  after  the  manner  of  the  in- 
habitants of  the  American  tropics  at  the 
present  time. 

In  reference  to  the  superiority  of  the  skill 
displayed  by  the  Mound-builders  in  the  ce- 
ramic arts,  to  the  corresponding  civilization 
of  ancient  Europe,  I  can  not  do  better  than 
quote  the  words  of  Dr.  Foster.  x 

"  In  the  plastic  arts,  the  Mound-builders 
attained  a  perfection  far  in  advance  of  any 
samples  which  had  been  found  characteristic 

of  the  Stone,  and    even  the  Bronze  Age  of  Europe.     We  can    readily 


Fig.  3. 


1  Pre-historic  Races  of  the  United  States,  p.  236. 


POTTERY.  81 

conceive  that,  in  the  absence  of  metallic  vessels,  pottery  would  be  em- 
ployed as  a  substitute,  and  the  potter's  art  would  be  held  in  the  highest 
esteem.  From  making  useful  forms,  it  would  be  natural  to  advance  to 
the  ornamental.  Sir  John  Lubbock  remarks  that  '  few  of  the  British 
sepulchral  urns,  belonging  to  the  ante-Roman  times,  have  upon  them 
any  curved  lines.  Representations  of  animals  and  plants  are  almost  entirely 
wanting.'  They  are  even  absent  from  all  the  articles  belonging  to  the 
Bronze  Age  in  Switzerland,  and  I  might  almost  say  in  Western  Europe 
generally,  while  ornaments  of  curved  and  spiral  lines  are  eminentl}*  char- 
acteristic of  this  period.  The  ornamental  ideas  of  the  Stone  Age,  on 
the  other  hand,  are  confined,  so  far  as  we  know,  to  compositions  of 
straight  lines,  and  the  idea  of  a  curve  scarcely  seems  to  have  occurred  to 
them.  The  most  elegant  ornaments  on  their  vases  are  impressions 
made  by  the  finger-nail,  or  by  a  cord  wound  round  the  soft  clay." 

"  The  commonest  forms  of  the  Mound-builders'  pottery  represent  kettles, 
cups,  water-jugs,  pipes,  vases,  etc.  Not  content  with  plain  surfaces,  they 
frequently  ornamented  their  surfaces  with  curved  lines  and  fret-work. 
They  even  went  farther,  and  moulded  images  of  birds,  quadrupeds, 
and  of  the  human  form.  The  clay,  except  for  their  ordinary  kettles, 
where  coarse  gravel  is  often  intermixed,  is  finely-tempered,  so  that  it 
did  not  warp  or  crack  in  baking, — the  utensils,  when  completed,  having  a 
yellowish  or  grayish  tint." 

In  the  group  of  vessels  shown  in  Fig.  4,  while  the  human  faces  and 
heads  of  birds  are  crudely  expressed,  we  find  much  to  admire  in  the 
tasteful  forms  of  the  birds  themselves.  The  flow  of  their  outline,  so  to 
speak,  evinces  a  degree  of  refinement  of  feeling  which  could  only  result 
from  a  culture  of  the  sense  for  beauty,  which  must  have  required  a  long 
time  for  its  realization.  It  will  be  noticed  that  the  mouths  or  openings 
were,  on  all,  made  at  the  back  side  of  the  head.  This  seems  to  have 
been  the  uniform  practice,  whether  the  head  of  the  vessel  was  that  of 
man,  beast  or  bird.  Sometimes  the  vessels  with  vertical  openings,  as 
of  h  and  Z,  are  fitted  with  covers  of  the  same  material,  with  projecting 
knobs  on  the  top  for  handling  them.  Sometimes,  again,  the  smaller  jno-s, 
or  bottles  as  they  should  be  called,  have  nicely-adjusted  stoppers,  as 
shown  at  i.  These  latter  bottles  are  made  of  much  finer  material,  and 
while  they  are  generally  quite  thin,  they  are  so  well  baked  that  they 
seem  to  be  almost  as  tough  and  strong  as  our  own  ware.  On  pa^e  23 
of  the  Eighth  Annual  Report  of  the  Trustees  of  the  Peabody  Museum, 
a  representation  of  two  of  these  stoppers  is  given ;  one  of  which  is  the 
same  as  shown  at  i  (Fig.  4).  They  are  described  as  "two  articles 
6 


Fig,  4  — Varieties  of  Drinking  Vessels  from  Southeast  Missouri,     a  and  b  Front  and  Back  View  of  same  Vessel,     i  Small  Bottle  and  Stopper. 


POTTEKY. 


83 


carved  from  a  hard  clay  slate  and  carefully  smoothed.  Their  use  is 
problematical,  but  they  so  closely  resemble  lip  ornaments  as  to  suggest 
that  they  were  such."  These  are  now  in  the  "  Swallow  Collection  *'  of 
the  museum.  In  its  transportation  from  Missouri  to  Massachusetts,  the 
report  informs  us,  many  of  the  articles  were  so  broken  as  to  make  their 
reconstruction  impossible.  When  I  had  the  pleasure  of  examining  this 
collection,  some  years  since,  these  stoppers  were  then  attached  to  the 
bottles  with  which  they  were  found.  The  smaller  bottle  of  the  two, 
Professor  Swallow  informed  me,  when  taken  from  the  mound,  contained 
a  red  liquid. 

Some,  of  the  representations  of  the  human  figure  are  executed  with  a 
o-ood  decree  of  fidelity  to  nature,  through  all  the  members  ;  showing 
that  the  artist  had  studied  carefully  his  model,  and  had  evidently  labored 
to  tell  the  truth  as  he  saw  it.  Some  of  the  human  figures  have  an  ex- 
pression so  striking  and  individual  that  we  can  hardly  believe  that  they 

are  not  portraits.  This  becomes  more  prob- 
able when  we  examine  the  animal  represent- 
ations, or  rather  the  heads  of  birds,  with 
which  the  pottery  is  very  often  ornamented  ; 
particularly  those  of  the  different  varieties 
of  ducks,  in  which  we  observe  in  the  shape 
of  the  head,  line  of  neck,  etc.,  the  nicest 
distinctions  in  particular  varieties,  which  are 
expressed  with  remarkable  skill.  This  will 
be  apparent  when  we  come  to  the  consider- 
ation of  Food  Vessels. 

In  the  annexed  group  (Fig.  5)  are  four 
varieties.  In  one,  the  head  of  the  horned  owl 
is  skillfully  joined  to  the  body  of  the  vessel. 
Another  form  of  jug,  which  is  of  less  frequent 
occurrence  than  the  gourd-shape,  is,  as 
shown  in  the  cut,  supported  by  four  and  sometimes  three  hollow  bulbous 
leo-s.  The  two  human  figures  are  coarsely  executed,  except  the  heads. 
They  usually  represent  a  hump-backed  female  figure  in  a  sitting  position, 
and  the  legs,  when  they  are  suggested,  bent  under  the  body,  with  arms 
resting  upon  the  knees.  They  are  simple  water-jugs,  having  the  mouth 
always  in  the  occipital  region  of  the  head.  Occasionally  one  is  met  with 
which  is  grossly  indelicate.  The  vessels  representing  the  human  figure 
vary  much  in  size.  Some  are  so  small  that  their  capacity  is  not  greater 
than  two  fluid  ounces.     The  larger  are  from  four  to  ten  inches  in  height 


Fig.  5. 


84 


ARCHAEOLOGY. 


and  hold  from  one  to  four  pints.     This  is,  however,  a  proximate  esti- 
mate, but  can  not  be  far  wrong. 

Some  of  the  smaller  images  are,  of  all  that  I  have  seen,  altogether  the 
most  artistic  and  expressive.  They  have  been  by  some  supposed  to  be 
idols,  but  there  is  no  evidence  whatever,  that  I  have  seen,  which  favors  this 
supposition.  They  all  have  an  orifice  through  which  the  cavities  could 
be  filled,  which  is  constructed  precisely  like  the  commonest  jugs  ;  while 
their  relative  position  in  the  mounds,  in  companionship  with  other  ves- 
sels, is  conclusive  to  my  own  mind  that  they  were  used  as  receptacles  of 
some  precious  articles  of  domestic  use  ;  such  as  medicines,  ointments,  and 
the  like.  And  again,  there  is  very 
little  in  all  we  know  concerning  this 
poeple  that  would  favor  the  idea 
that  they  had  any  idols,  unless  it 
may  have  been  symbolic  represent- 
ations of  the  heavenly  bodies, 
which  we  know  were  the  chief 
objects  of  their  worship.  In  ad- 
dition to  all  this,  they  made  images 
of  beasts,  as  we  shall  see,  which 
were  unquestionably  humorous  car- 
icatures. 

The  most  elegant  and  artistic  specimens  of  pottery  which  have  been 
taken  from  the  mounds  in  Missouri  were  quite  recently  discovered. 
Some  vessels  now  in  the  museum  of  the  St.  Louis  Academy  of  Science 
are  very  suggestive  of  the  pottery  of  Ancient  Egypt,  and  indeed,  in  their 
decorative  forms,  and  coloring  of  black,  red  and  white  figures,  are  not 
greatly  inferior  to  Etruscan  art.1 

The  material  of  these  articles  is  much  finer  than  that  of  the  common 
ware,  which  in  the  larger  vessels,  having  a  capacity  of  several  gallons,  is 
generally  mixed  with  sand,  and  the  medium  sizes  with  pounded  shells  ; 
while  the  finest  seems  to  be  composed  of  a  light-colored,  very  fine- 
grained, yellowish  clay — perhaps  mixed  with  gypsum.  The  different 
varieties  of  ware,  the  different  materials  of  which  they  are  composed, 
and  the  diversity  of  tastes  displayed  in  their  decoration,  would  "  suggest 
a  division  of  labor"  among  several  classes  of  skilled  artisans  and  artists. 


Fig.  6.     Two  Views. 


1  The  St.  Louis  Academy  of  Science,  under  the  supervision  of  the  Archaeological 
Section,  will  soon  publish  a  series  of  plates  of  these  decorated  jugs  and  vases,  drawn 
on  stone  and  printed  in  fac  simile  colors,  with  descriptive  text  by  F.  F.  Hilder. 


POTTERY. 


85 


This  was  probably  the  case ;  for,  as  is  well  known,  however  common  the 
articles  manufactured  may  be  as  to  their  uses,  in  everything  which 
comes  from  the  hand  of  the  skillful  there  is  a  finish  or  refinement  of 
treatment  which  is  never  seen  in  the  work  of  the  unpracticed  hand.  The 
annexed  engraving  (Fig.  7)  represents  a  jug,  about 
nine  inches  in  height,  of  a  light  yellowish  color,  orna- 
mented around  the  neck  with  red  and  black  lines,  and 
around  its  greatest  diameter  with  curved  lines  in  red, 
white  and  black.  It  is  very  symmetrical  in  form,  with 
a  bottom  sufficiently  flat  to  cause  it  to  stand  firmly. 
I  have  exhumed  one  similar  in  shape  and  color,  but 
differently  ornamented.  Around  the  largest  circumfer- 
ence were  six  red  circles  ;  close  to  these,  and  on  the  inside, 
are  white  circles.  Within  these  again,  is  a  red  circle,  and  in  each  of  the 
spaces  thus  enclosed  by  the  circles,  is  a  white  cross  with  arms  of  equal 


Fig.  7. 


Fig.  8. 


length.  The  stripes  are  about  three-tenths  of  an  inch  in  width.  This 
combination  of  color  and  form  has  a  striking  and  not  unpleasing  effect. 
The  knowledge  and  feeling  evinced  by  the  combination  and  contrast  of 


86  ARCHEOLOGY. 

angles  and  circles,  in  colors,  is  certainly  quite  remarkable.  The  colors 
of  the  stripes  were  mixed  with  some  sort  of*  article  which  preserved  them, 
and  gave  them  a  lustrous  or  varnished  appearance,  which  they  still  to 
some  degree  retain. 

In  the  next  group  (Fig.  8")  are  presented  a  few  of  the  endless  forms 
of  the  more  common  utensils.  They  are  interesting  as  showing  the 
constant  and  active  presence  of  the  inclination  to  beautify  whatever 
vessel  they  manufactured.  There  are  very  few  that  are  not  ornamented 
in  some  manner.  Some  have  the  edges  indented  or  dotted,  as  with  the 
point  of  a  stick  or  the  finger-nail,  while  others  have  the  rim  slightly 
enlarged  and  marked  with  a  spiral  line,  which  gives  the  edge  a  beaded 
appearance.  Some  of  these  bowls  and  pans  have  a  very  familiar  look  as 
to  their  form. 

This  class  of  pottery,  as  well  as  the  ordi- 
nary jugs,  are  usually  of  dark  gray  and  well 
baked,  the  clay,  as  before  stated,  having  been 
tempered  with  pounded  shells. 

In  a  previous  chapter,  describing  the  mode 
of  burial  in  one  of  the  mounds  near  West 
Lake,  it  was  stated  that  with  the  skeletons 
were  usually  found  two  or  three  vessels,  one 
or  two  jugs  near  the  head,  and  a  food-vessel 

in  the  bend  of  the  arms,  which  were  folded  across  the  breast.  The 
forms  of  food-vessels  here  presented  are  those  most  frequently  found 
in  that  position.  In  some  of  them  I  have  observed  a  very  smal  plot, 
not  much  larger  than  a  hen's  egg :  in  some  instances  containing  a 
bone.  In  others  carbonized  fruit,  resembling  wild  grapes,  has  been  found  ; 
in  others,  again,  the  soft  remains  of  muscle  shells,  thoroughly  decayed. 
The  jugs  and  bowls  which  were  interred  with  the  corpse,  no  doubt,  con- 
tained food  and  drink,  fgr  the  purpose  of  sustaining  the  traveler  during 
the  long  journey  he  was  supposed  to  have  entered  upon.  These  pots 
suggest  many  interesting  reflections  concerning  their  faith  and  notions 
of  a  future  life. 

The  forms  represented  in  the  preceding  group  are  the  simplest  of  all 
but  not  more  frequent  than  those  which  are  much  more  ornamental. 
Vessels  in  the  form  of  the  muscle-shell,  and  holding  fully  one  pint,  are 
by  no  means  unfrequent ;  and  again  a  fish  or  frog  will  be  used  as  a 
model.  The  two  presented  in  Fig.  9  are  quite  common.  Sometimes 
the  legs  and  feet  of  the  frog  are  well  defined,  but  folded  along  the  sides 
of  the  body.     Usually,  when  a  fish  is  represented,  it  is  done  by  simply 


POTTEKY. 


87 


moulding  the  head,  tail  and  fins  upon  the  side  of  the  dish,  but  occasion- 
ally the  exact  form  of  the  fish  is  represented,  scales  and  all.  In  such 
cases,  the  orifice  is  in  the  side,  and  furnished  with  a  tube  which  projects 
an  inch  or  two,  forconvenienee  in  use  as  a  drinking-vessel.  In  one  in- 
stance, which  came  under  my  notice,  the  body  of  a  man  lying  upon  the 
back  was  represented,  with  legs  and  arms  rudely  made  out,  and  the  tube 
projecting  from  the  stomach. 

b 


Fig.  10.     Cooking  Vessels. 


Their  imitative  faculties,  as  illustrated  in  their  pottery,  were  certainly 
remarkable,  and  to  give  an  adequate  idea  of  the  variety  of  their  work  in 
the  subjects  which  might  be  chosen  for  illustration  would  require  more 
space  than  is  allotted  to  this  essay.  We  proceed,  therefore,  to  consider 
their  cooking  utensils.     Some  of  the  more  frequent  forms  are  grouped 


together  in  Fig.  10. 


88  ARCHEOLOGY. 

While  these  vessels  were  doubtless  for  common,  every-day  use,  some 
of  them  are  really  quite  artistic  and  graceful.  The  three  larger  ones 
(a  b,  c)  are  particularly  so.  The  forms  and  ornamentation  of  the  others 
seem  to  be  more  experimental,  and  perhaps  transitional,  as  though  the 
maker  varied  a  little  from  his  usual  manner  just  to  see  how  they  would 
look.  The  one  at  g,  however,  is  a  much  bolder  innovation,  and  is 
finished  as  there  shown,  with  six  hemispheroidal  projections.  It  will 
be  observed  that  all  have  two  or  more  handles,  by  which  they  were 
probably  suspended  over  the  fire  by  passing  through  them  green  twigs, 

which  they  covered  with  moist  clay  to 
prevent  them  from  burning.  Examples 
might  be  multiplied,  ad  infinitum  almost, 
of  this  class  of  vessels,  but  the  above  are 
sufficient  to  illustrate  the  inventive  powers 
of  their  authors  in  this  direction,  as  well 
as  their  constant  striving  to  gratify  their 
sesthetic  feeling  in  the  manufacture  of  those 
fragile  articles  which  were  designed  for 
the  commonest  uses. 

Fig.  11  represents  a  pot  very  similar  to 
a,  of  the  preceding  group,  but  entirely 
unique  in  this,  that  it  contained  the  upper 
portion  of  a  human  skull  and  one  vertebra.  It  was  taken  from  a  mound 
near  New  Madrid,  by  Prof.  Swallow,  who  tells  us  that  the  vessel  must 
have  been  moulded  around  the  skull,  as  it  could  not  be  removed  without 
breaking  the  pot.  It  is  now  in  the  Peabody  Museum.  The  top  of  the 
skull  is  shown  in  the  engraving.  This  is  certainly  a  curiosity.  Nothing 
like  it  has  been  found  in  any  other  burial  mound  here  or  anywhere  else, 

as  far  as  known. 

It  may  be  remembered,  however,  in  this  connection,  as  before  re- 
marked, that  small  pots  have  frequently  been  found  in  the  larger  pans, 
and  which  contained  a  decayed  shell  or  fragment  of  bone.  These  were, 
very  likely,  valued  relics  or  charms  which  were  buried  with  their  pos- 
sessor. 

In  Herbert  Spencer's  "Principles  of  Sociology,"1  in  the  chapter  upon 
Idol-Worship  and  Fetich-Worship,  the  following  interesting  statements 
occur,  which  seem  quite  pertinent  in  this  connection  : 

"Facts,  already  named,  show  how  sacrifices  to  the  man  recently  dead 

i  Popular  Science  Monthly  for  December,  1875,  p.  158. 


POTTERY.  89 

pass  into  sacrifices  to  his  preserved  body.  We  have  seen  that  to  the 
corpse  of  a  Tahitian  chief  daily  offerings  were  made  on  an  altar  by  a 
priest ;  and  the  ancient  Central  Americans  performed  kindred  rites  before 
bodies  dried  by  artificial  heat.  That,  along  with  a  developed  system  of 
embalming,  this  grew  into  mummy- worship,  Peruvians  and  Egyptians 
have  furnished  proof. 

"  Here  the  thing  to  be  observed  is  that,  while  believing  the  ghost  of  the 
dead  man  to  have  gone  away,  these  peoples  had  confused  notions,  either 
that  it  was  present  in  the  mummy,  or  that  the  mummy  was  itself  con- 
scious. Among  the  Egyptians,  this  was  clearly  implied  by  the  practice 
of  sometimes  placing  their  embalmed  dead  at  table.  The  Peruvians, 
who  by  a  parallel  custom  betrayed  a  like  belief,  also  betrayed  it  in  other 
ways.  By  some  of  them  the  dried  corpse  of  a  parent  was  carried  round 
the  fields  that  he  might  see  the  state  of  the  crops. 

"  How  the  ancestor,  thus  recognized  as  present,  was  also  recognized  as 
exercising  authority,  we  see  in  the  story  given  by  Santa  Cruz.  When 
his  second  sister  refused  to  marry  him,  '  Huayna  Capac  went  with  pres- 
ents and  offerings  to  the  body  of  his  father,  praying  him  to  give  her  for 
his  wife,  but  the  dead  body  gave  no  answer,  while  fearful  signs  appeared 
in  the  heavens.' 

M  The  primitive  idea  that  any  property  characterizing  an  aggregate  inheres 
in  all  parts  of  it,  implies  a  corollary  from  this  belief.  The  soul,  present 
in  the  body  of  a  dead  man  preserved  entire,  is  also  present  in  preserved 
parts  of  his  body.  Hence  the  faith  in  relics.  Ellis  tells  us  that,  in  the 
Sandwich  Islands,  bones  of  the  legs,  arms,  and  sometimes  the  skulls,  of 
kings  and  principal  chiefs,  are  carried  about  by  their  descendants,  under 
the  belief  that  the  spirits  exercise  guardianship  over  them.  The  Crees 
carry  bones  and  hair  of  dead  persons  about  for  three  years.  The  Caribs, 
and  several  Guiana  tribes,  have  their  cleaned  bones  distributed  among  the 
relatives  after  death.  The  Tasmanians  show  '  anxiety  to  possess  them- 
elves  of  a  bone  from  the  skull  or  the  arms  of  their  deceased  relatives.' 
The  Adamanese  '  widows  may  be  seen  with  the  skulls  of  their  deceased 
partners  suspended  from  their  necks.'  This  belief  in  the  power  of  relics 
leads  in  some  cases  to  direct  worship  of  them.  Erskine  tells  us  that  the 
natives  of  Lifu,  Loyalty  Islands,  who  'invoked  the  spirits  of  their 
departed  chiefs,'  also  'preserve  relics  of  their  dead,  such  as  a  finger 
nail,  a  tooth,  a  tuft  of  hair,  and  pay  divine  homage  to  it.'  Of  the  New 
Caledonians,  Turner  says:  'In  cases  of  sickness,  and  other  calamities, 
they  present  offerings  of  food  to  the  skulls  of  the  departed.'  Moreover 
we  have  the  evidence  furnished  by  conversation  with  the  relic.     Lander 


90 


ARCHEOLOGY. 


savs : 


In  the  private  fetich  hut  of  the  King  Aololee  at  Badagry,  the 
skull  of  that  monarch's  father  is  preserved  in  a  clay  vessel  placed  in  the 
earth.'  He  'gently  rebukes  it  if  his  success  does  not  happen  to  answer 
his  expectations.' 


Fig.  12.     Bowls  With  Ornamental  Heads. 


"  Similary,  Catlin  describes  the  Mandans  as  placing  the  skulls  of  their 
dead  in  a  circle.     Each  wife  knows  the  skill  1  of  her  former  husband  or 


POTTERY. 


91 


child,  'and  there  seldom  passes  a  day  that  sue  does  not  visit  it,  with  a 
dish  of  the  best  cooked  food.  There  is  scarely  an  hour  in  a  pleasant 
day,  but  more  or  less  of  these  women  may  be  seen  sitting  or  lying  by 
the  skull  of  their  child  or  husband,  talking  to  it  in  the  most  pleasant  and 
endearing  language  that  they  can  use  (as  they  were  wont  to  do  in  former 
days)  and  seemingly  getting  an  answer  back.' 

"Thus  propitiation  of  the  man  just  dead  leads  to  propitiation  of  his 
preserved  body  or  a  preserved  part  of  it;  and  the  ghost  is  supposed  to 
be  present  in   the  part  as  in  the  whole." 

From  the  foregoing  remarks  and  array  of  facts  presented  by  Mr. 
Spencer,  there  can  be  but  little  doubt  that  the  presence  of  the  skull  in 
the  earthen  vessel  from  the  New  Madrid  mound  is  due  to  a  belief  in  the 
presence  of  the  soul  in  the  relics  of  the  departed,  and  which  seems  to 
have  been  a  common  belief  among  many  savage  and  uncivilized  nations. 
In  the  next  group  (Fig.  12)  are  presented  a  few  of  the  most  com- 
mon varieties  of  another  and  quite  distinct  class  of  bowls.  They  are 
peculiar  in  this  :  the  bodies  of  the  vessels  are  entirely  devoid  of  orna- 
mentation. From  the  edge  of  the  lip  on  one  side  projects  a  small  handle  : 
on  the  opposite  side  is  moulded  the  head  of  some  beast  or  bird,  and  quite 
often  a  human  head  is  represented. 

The  thing  to  be  specially  noticed  is  the  diversity  of  form  in  the  heads 
of  the  ducks.  So  faithfully  are  the  distinctive  features  of  the  different 
varieties  delineated,  that  those  at  all  familiar  with  them  must  believe  that 
the  artist,  according  to  the  best  of  his  skill,  conscientiously  copied 
nature.  The  beautiful  curve  of  the  neck,  and  its  union  with  the  outline 
of  the  vessel  itself,  could  not  possibly  have  been  accidental. 

The  best  which  these  ancient  workmen  could  do  is  so  far  inferior  to  the 
art  of  our  own  times,  that  it  is  not  easy  for  us  to  appreciate  the  difficulties 
they  must  have  overcome,  their  many  failures,  the  long  time  necessary  for 
the  acquisition  of  those  habits  of  observation,  and  the  development  of 
the  skill  of  hand  sufficient  to  enable  them  to  express  themselves  as  cred- 
itably as  they  have  done  in  all  their  imitative  work.  In  the  class  of  ves- 
sels under  consideration,  examples  decorated  with  the  human  head  and 
features  are  by  no  means  rare.  If  the  credit  given  them  for  conscien- 
tious observation  of  nature,  and  skill  in  expression  of  what  they  saw,  is 
not  an  over-estimate,  then  we  may  believe  that,  in  their  delineation  of  the 
human  face,  they  also  copied  nature  with  a  sufficient  degree  of  accuracy 
to  warrant  us  in  the  idea  that  in  their  work  we  have  at  least  character- 
istic likenesses  of  themselves.  In  the  examples  presented  in  Fig.  13, 
there  is  wanting  that  refinement  of  feeling  and  realistic  portraiture  which 


92 


ARCHEOLOGY. 


nre  displayed  in  the  preceding  representations  of  animal  heads  ;  but  still 
sufficient  individuality  to  make  them  very  interesting,  and,  as  before  re- 
marked, to  impress  us  with  the  belief  that  they  too  were  copied  from 
life. 

In  the  examples  thus  far  given  of  the  pottery  of  the  Missouri  Mound- 
builders,  the  aim  has  been 
to  show  the  leading  varieties 
and  mode  of  decoration. 
The  subject  is  by  no  means 
exhausted ;  in  fact,  almost 
every  mound  opened  discloses 
some  new  variety,  audi  have 
seen  many  other  specimens 
of  their  ware  entirely  dif- 
ferent in  form — some  of  them 
are  beautifully  decorated  — 
but  which  are  now  scattered 
among  private  collections, 
and  therefore  not  available 
for  illustration  here.  There 
is  one  other  curious  form  of 
^  drinking  vessel  which  should 
be  noticed.  It  has  elicited 
much  speculation  as  to  what 
it  was  intended  to  represent. 
Several  of  this  variety  have  been  found  in  the  Missouri  mounds,  unmis- 
takably representing  the  same  animal,  but  no  two  alike.  The  general 
figure  of  this  "what  is  it  "  is  shown  in  the  engraving.  It  has  four  clumsy 
legs,  a  thick  body,  the  usual  drinking  neck  projecting 
from  the  back,  and  a  swinish  head.  Sometimes  they 
are  made  of  very  fine  and  finely-tempered  yellowish 
clay, — the  larsrer  ones  of  the  usual  material  of  the  dark 
gray  ware,  with  a  capacity  of  from  one  to  two  pints. 
The  light-colored  and  finer  ones  are  decorated  with 
scroll-work  made  out  with  red  and  white  lines.  Some 
of  the  larger  ones  have  human  faces  moulded  upon  the  sides  of  the 
body,  midway  between  the  legs.  In  some  instances  the  head  proper 
has  the  eyes  of  a  human  face  and  the  snout  turned  up  to  such  au 
extent  as  to  completely  obstruct  the  front  line  of  vision,  which,  with 
its  half-human  expression,  make    it  very   grotesque.     If  the  hog  were 


Fig.  13.     Bowls  With  Human  Heads. 


Fig.  14. 


POTTEET.  93 

indigenous  to  America,  it  would  at  once  be  pronounced  a  represen- 
tation of  that  animal.  The  nearest  approach  to  it  which  is  native  here, 
is  the  peccary,  or  Mexican  hog,  but  that  has  no  tail,  while  on  one 
example  of  this  figure  a  tail  was  well  represented  ;  and  as  it  would  have 
been  too  easily  broken  in  the  natural  position  it  was  curled  up  on  the 
hip.  Some  have  pronounced  it  the  hippopotamus.  To  my  own  eye  it 
is  intensely  hoggish.  But  whatever  was  intended  to  be  represented  by 
it, — hog  or  hippopotamus, — it  introduces  a  disturbing  factor  into  the 
question  of  chronology  which  may  require  some  time  to  adjust ;  unless 
we  can  credit  La  Vega's  statement  in  his  Royal  Commentaries  of  Peru, 
that  the  ancient  Peruvians  who  dwelt  in  the  mountains  had  hogs  similar 
to  those  which  the  Spaniards  introduced.  Again,  if  the  model  after 
which  these  were  moulded  was  the  common  hog,  which  was  introduced 
by  the  first  white  settlers  in  this  region,  why  is  it  that  they  took  no 
notice  of  any  other  animal  or  bird  which  the  earliest  settlers  brought 
with  them,  or  why  do  we  not  find  in  companionship  in  the  mounds  some 
other  human  vestigia  of  European  origin?  For  the  present  we  can  only 
state  the  facts,  with  the  questions  which  they  suggest,  and  wait  for  further 
developments. 

Writers  upon  American  archaeology  have  been  able  to  find  no  evidence 
that  the  Mound-builders  knew  anything  about  the  use  of  the  potter's 
wheel ;  but  it  is  difficult  to  believe  that  some  of  the  finest  of  their  work 
could  have  been  so  gracefully  and  symmetrically  moulded  by  ordinary 
manipulation,  and  without  some  mechanical  appliances 
and  adjustments,  by  which  a  uniformity  of  action  and 
pressure  would  be  brought  to  bear  upon  the  whole 
mass.  Without  discussing  the  question,  however,  I 
desire  simply  to  call  attention  to  two  discoveries,  which 
at  first  sight  may  seem  unimportant,  but  after  all  may 
have  some  value,  should  they  stimulate  further  and 
more  careful  observation  in  this  direction.  The  first 
is  represented  iu  the  engraving,  Fig.  15,  and  was  taken  from  a  New 
Madrid  mound  by  Prof.  Swallow.  "It  is  one-half  of  a  rough  ball  of 
burnt  clay,  about  3.5  inches  in  diameter,  and  shows  the  impression  of 
the  skin  and  finger-marks  of  the  hands  that  moulded  it.  This  mass  was 
perforated  through  the  center,  as  shown  in  the  figure  giving  a  section  of 
it."1     It  had  perhaps  been  designed  to  be  fashioned  into  a  vessel  of  some 


i  Eighth  Annual  Eeport  of  the  Trustees  of  the  Peabody  Museum. 


94  ARCHEOLOGY. 

sort,  but  by  some  means  burnt  before  the  design  "was  carried  out.  The 
perforation  would  suggest  that  it  had  been  attached  to  a  stick  or  spindle 
for  convenience  in  handling.  The  other  article  is  much  more  suggestive. 
It  belongs  to  that  class  of  implements  usually  denominated  spindle-whorls. 
They  are  found  scattered  over  the  whole  country,  at  least  wherever  the 
principal  works  of  the  Mound-builders  are  to  be  seen.  This  was  taken 
from  a  mound  about  eighteen  miles  from  New  Madrid.  When  I  attempted 
to  wash  it,  I  discovered  that  it  had  not  been  hardened  in  the  fire,  but 

only  sun-dried,  as  it  fell  into  fragments  under 
the  action  of  the  water.  With  great  care,  these 
were  collected  and  glued  together  again.     It  is 

coo 

about  2.5.  inches  in  diameter,  and  three-fourths 
of  an  inch  in  thickness  at  the  periphery.  Both 
sides  are  concave.  The  most  interesting  fact  about 
it  is  this  :  It  has  around  the  outer  edge  a  rudi- 
mentary groove,  as  represented  in  the  engraving. 
Fig.  16.  I  can  only  wish  the  groove  had  been 
deeper.  But  as  it  was  unburnt,  I  am  led  to  be- 
lieve that  the  article  was  unfinished  :  and  that 
had  it  been,  it  would  have  furnished  some  evidence  that  the  maker  was 
not  unacquainted  with  the  use  of  the  pulley,  or  potter's  wheel. 

The  necessity  for  condensation  demands  that  here  our  consideration  of 
this  part  of  our  subject  should  eud.  The  variety  and  beauty  of  many  of 
the  objects  of  their  fictile  skill  are  very  suggestive,  and  furnish  much 
material  for  extended  generalization.  But  a  remark  or  two  must  suffice 
in  this  connection.  To  suppose  that  all  this  taste  and  feeling — this  close 
observation  of  nature-and  fidelity  in  delineation,  displayed  in  the  pottery 
of  the  Mound-builders,  found  no  expression  in  any  other  direction,  and 
was  expended  upon  their  domestic  utensils  alone,  is  simply  incredible. 
Very  different  must  have  been  the  homes  of  a  people  furnished  with 
such  tasteful  articles,  from  those  miserable  huts  which  the  nomadic 
Indians  constructed  for  their  habitations  ;  and  it  is  quite  likely  that  in 
their  dress  as  well  as  their  dwellings  they  evinced  the  same  ideas  of  taste 
and  convenience  which  we  perceive  in  their  domestic  utensils.  In  some 
of  their  human  effigies  we  do  find  the  manner  of  arranging  the  hair  dis- 

o  o      o 

tinctly  delineated,  and  we  may  yet  discover  those  which  shall  furnish  us 
with  correct  representations  of  their  mode  of  dress.  Indeed  I  have  seen 
one  vessel  with  figures  of  men  rudely  painted  in  outline  upon  its  sides, 
who  were  clad  in  a  flowing  garment,  gathered  by  a  belt  around  the 
waist,  and  reaching  to  the  knees.     In  this  connection  I  may  mention  the 


ENGRAVED  SHELLS. 


95 


engraved  shells  which  have  frequently  been  found  with  skeletons,  both 
in  Missouri  and  Illinois.  One  of  the  most  interesting  is  represented 
in  FisT.  17,1  which  jrives  also  the  natural  size.  When  taken  from  the 
mound,  the  shell  was  quite  soft  and  brittle,  and  easily  cut  with  the  finger- 


Fig.  17. 


nail.  The  outer  edge  was  much  broken  or  worn  away,  as  shown  in  the 
engraving.  The  design  was  enclosed  by  six  circular  lines,  portions  of 
which  still  remain.  On  one  side  were  two  perforations,  designed  doubtless 
for  the  string  by  which  it  was  suspended  from  the  neck.  All  similar 
shells  that  I  have  seen  are  so  perforated.  It  seems  quite  evident  from 
the  picture  that  it  memorializes  the  victory  of  the  individual  represented 
as  standing  over  an  enemy  who  lies  on  his  face  at  his  feet.     The  victor, 


1  For  the  photograph  of  which  this  is  an  accurate  copy,  I  am  indebted  to  the  late 
Captain  Whitley. 


96  ARCHEOLOGY. 

it  will  be  observed,  holds  in  his  right  hand  a  weapon  or  symbol  of 
authority,  with  which  he  seems  to  be  pressing  the  prostrate  figure  to  the 
earth.  Many  of  the  accessories  are  unintelligible.  While  the  whole 
work  is  very  crude,  and  the  figures  out  of  all  proportion,  there  is  here 
and  there  an  outline  which  shows  earnest  endeavor ;  as  the  leg  of  the 
stand  in"  figure,  for  example,  in  which  also  the  action  is  so  well  expressed 
as  to  suggest  that,  by  an  impetuous  onset,  he  has  just  felled  his  antago- 
nist to  the  ground.  The  artist  seems  to  have  had  most  difficulty  with  the 
eye,  or  rather,  has  made  no  attempt  at  imitating  that  organ. 

There  is  now  in  the  museum  of  the  St.  Louis  Academy  of  Science  a 
similar  shell,  upon  which  is  portrayed,  in  a  creditable  manner,  the  figure 
of  a  spider.  I  have  also  been  shown  another  by  Dr.  Kichardson,  from 
a  mound  in  Illinois,  almost  precisely  like  it,  and  differing  only  in  a  small 
symbolic  device,  which  is  carved  upon  the  back  of  each.  Engraved 
shells  are  generally  found  upon  the  breast  of  the  skeleton,  or  in  such 
a  position  as  shows  that  they  were  originally  placed  there,  and  also 
where  they  were  probably  worn  during  life.  According  to  Mr.  Pidgeon, 
the  spider  emblem  is  perpetuated  in  the  mounds  far  to  the  north.  He 
describes  one  which  he  saw  in  Minnesota,  about  sixty  miles  above  the 
junction  of  the  St.  Peters  river  with  the  Mississippi,  which  covered 
nearly  an  acre  of  ground.  Upon  ascending  its  highest  elevation,  he 
tells  us,  it  was  very  evident  that  the  spider  was  intended  to  be  repre- 
sented by  it.  I  bring  these  facts  together  for  the  benefit  of  future 
observers,  without  speculating  as  to  their  significance,  further  than  to 
venture  the  remark  that  they  point  to  a  great  diffusion  of  one  people,  or 
their  migration  from  the  north,  southwardly  along  the  Mississippi  valley. 


CHAPTER  XJ. 

Crani a.—  Differences  Between  the  Skulls  of  the  Mound-Builders  and  the  Indians. 
—Difficulties  of  the  Subject.— Two  Varieties  of  Crania  in  the  same  Mounds.— 
Principles  of  Classification. — Influence  of  Local  Customs.— Peruvian  Skulls.— 
Characteristics  of  Missouri  Specimens,  etc.— The  Tools  of  Ancient  Americans. 
—Proofs  of  a  Knowledge  of  Iron. 

To  the  common  observer,  the  unnumbered  stars  which  shine  nightly 
in  the  firmament  above  utter  no  voice,  and  give  no  sign  concerning  their 
physical  condition,  their  individual  motions,  or  relative  distance  from 
each  other.  All  seemingly  sweep  on  together  with  undeviating  regular- 
ity— differing  only  in  the  intensity  of  their  light.  But  when  the  appliances 
of  modern  science  are  brought  to  bear  upon  the  facts  within  our  grasp 
concerning  them,  and  their  dim  rays  are  gathered  up  by  the  spectroscope, 
the  faint  star  becomes  a  fiery  orb  and  the  theatre  of  the  conflict  of  forces 
of  prodigious  power.  The  sun  is  seen  to  be  a  fiery,  fluid  mass,  in  whose 
atmosphere  are  ceaseless  storms  of  flaming  elements  and  tempestuous 
cyclones,  which  burst  forth  on  every  side  with  awful  grandeur  and  incon- 
ceivable velocitv. 

Alike  unintelligible  to  a  common  observer,  in  their  ethnic  relations, 
would  be  a  collection  of  skulls  brought  together  from  different  lands,  as 
throwing  any  light  upon  the  long  history  of  the  different  races  of  man- 
kind. Some  would  appear  shorter,  rounder  or  more  irregular  than 
others,  but  the  same  general  features  which  characterize  them  all — with 
the  exceptions  named — would  be  about  all  that  wrould  be  specially 
noticed.  But  when  viewed  in  the  resultant  light  of  all  the  study  which 
has  been  bestowed  upon  them,  and  the  cautious  inductions  of  the  wisest 
ethnologists,  they  become  vocal  with  revelations  of  transcendant  interest. 
We  are  not  to  suppose,  however,  that  there  are  no  great  and  decided 
variations  in  the  crania  of  a  particular  race,  for  these  are  as  widely  differ- 
ent as  the  varying  expressions  of  the  human  face,  and  yet  all  the  while 
presenting  certain  broad  distinctions  and  characteristics  b}r  which  the 
particular  race  to  which  they  belong  may  generally  be  determined. 

Says  Dr.  Foster:  "  While  the  individual  variations  in  the  crania  of  a 
particular  race  are  so  great  as  to  present  intermediate  gradations  from  one 
extreme  to  another,  thus  forming  a  connecting  link  between  widely  sepa- 
rated races,  yet,  in  a  large  assemblage  of  skulls  derived  from  a  particular 
race,  there  is  a  general  conformation,  a  predominant  type  ;  which  appears 
7 


98  ARCHEOLOGY. 

to  have  been  constant  as  far  back  as  human  records  extend ;  to  have 
been  unaffected  by  food,  climate,  or  personal  pursuits;  and  which  has 
been  regarded  among  the  surest  guides  in  tracing  national  affinities. 
Hitherto,  our  knowledge  of  the  mound-builders'  crania  has  been  exceed- 
ingly scant — restricted  to  less  than  a  dozen  specimens — which,  if  authen- 
tic, clearly  indicate  for  the  most  part  the  Indian  type.  The  results  of 
my  observations  have  led  me  to  infer  that  the  mound-builders'  crania  were 
characterized  by  a  general  conformation  of  parts,  which  clearly  separated 
them  from  the  existing  races  of  man,  and  particularly  from  the  Indians  of 
North  America." 

While  the  number  of  authentic  skulls  from  the  mounds  has  been 
greatly  multiplied  since  the  above  was  written,  not  much  has  yet  been 
done  in  the  way  of  classification,  measurement  and  tabulation,  so  as  to  be 
available  for  serious  study.  But  enough  has  been  already  determined  to 
show  how  premature  were  the  broad  generalizations  of  Dr.  Morton — and 
others  who  accepted  his  opinions — deduced  from  the  few  examples  of  the 
crania  of  the  mounds  which  he  was  able  to  add  to  his  large  collection  of 
other  types  from  all  parts  of  the  world.  While  questioning  some  of  his 
conclusions  with  which  he  sums  up  the  results  of  his  long-continued 
labors,  no  contrary  deductions  can  detract  in  the  slightest  degree  from  the 
inestimable  value  of  his  labors  and  splendid  contributions  to  ethnological 
science.  While  many,  in  view  of  more  extended  observations  and  discov- 
eries since  his  time,  will  withold  their  assent  to  the  proposition,  "that 
the  American  nations,  excepting  the  polar  tribes,  are  of  one  race  and  one 
species,  but  of  two  great  families,  which  resemble  each  other  in  physical, 
but  differ  in  intellectual  character,"  all  will  heartily  subscribe  to  the 
statement  of  Dr.  Daniel  Wilson  that,  "following  in  the  footsteps  of  the 
distinguished  Blumenbach,  Dr.  Morton  has  the  rare  merit  of  having 
labored  with  patient  zeal  and  untiring  energy,  to  accumulate  and  publish 
to  the  world  the  accurately  observed  data  which  constitute  the  only  true 
basis  of  science.  His  Crania  Americana  is  a  noble  monument  of  well- 
directed  industry  ;  and  the  high  estimation  in  which  it  is  held,  as  an  ac- 
curate embodiment  of  facts,  has  naturally  tended  to  give  additional 
weight  to  his  deductions." 

Nor  was  this  great  naturalist  less  mistaken  in  his  opinion  as  to  the 
mode  of  burial  practiced  by  the  aborigines  of  the  American  continent. 
He  tells  us  "that  from  Patagonia  to  Canada,  and  from  ocean  to  ocean, 
and  equally  in  the  civilized  and  uncivilized  tribes,  a  peculiar  mode  of 
placing  the  body  in  sepulture  has  been  practiced  from  immemorial  time. 
This  peculiarity  consists  in  the  sitting  posture."     That  this  was  not  the 


CEANIA.  99 

universal,  nor  even  the  most  common  mode  of  burial,  those  who  have 
read  the  foregoing  accounts  of  explorations  in  burial  mounds  in  various 
parts  of  the  continent,  have  already  seen. 

He  found  some  difficulty  at  first  in  reconciling  the  peculiarities  of  the 
long  and  flattened  Peruvian  skulls  with  the  round-headed  type  of  the  red 
Indian,  but  finally  decided  that  these  were  only  variations  of  the  same 
type  produced  by  artificial  pressure  in  infancy.  But  the  evidence  is 
abundant  and  convincing  that  there  was  one  race  in  Peru — probably  older 
than  the  Incarace — with  which  this  peculiarity  was  not  artificial,  but  con- 
genital, and  the  skull  of  the  adult  retained  through  life  the  strangely 
elongated  shape  with  which  it  entered  the  world.  Dr.  Wilson  further 
remarks  in  this  connection  :  "  The  comprehensive  generalization  of  the 
American  cranial  type,  thus  set  forth  on  such  high  authority,  has  exer- 
cised an  important  influence  on  subsequent  investigations  relative  to  the 
aborigines  of  the  New  World.  It  has,  indeed,  been  accepted  with  such 
ready  faith  as  a  scientific  postulate,  that  Agassiz,  Nott,  Meigs,  and  other 
physiologists  and  naturalists  adopted  it  without  question,  and  have  rea- 
soned from  it  as  one  of  the  few  well-determined  data  of  ethnological  sci- 
ence.  It  has  no  less  effectually  controlled  the  deductions  of  observant 
travellers." 

With  such  examples  before  us,  a  becoming  modesty  should  character- 
ize the  conclusions  of  those  laborers  in  the  same  great  field,  who  at  best 
may  only  hope  to  contribute  a  page  or  two  to  the  volume  of  truth  which 
he  has  bequeathed  to  his  followers. 

The  caution  with  which  we  should  proceed  in  every  step  of  our  inves- 
tigations becomes  all  the  more  imperative  on  account  of  the  difficulties 
which  meet  the  observer  at  the  very  threshold  of  his  enquiries.  One  of 
the  difficulties  has  been  already  suggested,  which  is  the  small  number  of 
skulls  concerning  which  there  can  be  no  doubt  whatever,  that  they  be- 
longed to  the  race  of  men  who  erected  the  mounds.  While  it  was  the 
custom  of  the  Indian  tribes  to  bury  their  dead  in  the  mounds  which  they 
found  ready  made,  yet  their  interments  may  generally  be  easily  distin- 
guished from  those  of  the  race  of  the  mounds  themselves  by  the  shallow- 
ness of  the  graves,  which  are  usually  near  the  surface.  Still,  for  the  want 
of  close  observation  among  cranial  collectors,  and  attention  to  this  fact, 
much  confusion  has  been  the  result.  Another  perplexity  is  caused  by 
the  fact  that  in  the  same  burial  mound  are  sometimes  found — at  least  in 
Missouri — two  entirely  different  classes  of  skulls,  with  distinctions  al- 
most as  strongly  marked  as  those  which  pertain  to  the  Caucasian  and  Ne- 
groid types,  whose  position  in  the   mound  and  companionship  in  the 


1 00  ARCHEOLOGY. 

way  of  implements  and  utensils  invest  neither  class  with  any  distinct- 
ive claim  over  the  other,  as  being  the  individuals  for  whom  the  memorial 
was  erected.  But,  not  to  specify  further,  it  may  be  remarked  that  so 
great  are  the  perplexities  caused  by  these  disturbing  elements,  in  the  minds 
of  some,  that  the}-  have  been  led  to  question  whether  we  are  justified  in 
assuming  that  we  have  a  predominant  cranial  type  of  the  Mound-building 
race,  with  characteristic  conformations  so  constant  as  to  distinguish  them 
from  all  others,  wherever  found,  so  that  they  may  be  relied  on  as  sure 
guides  in  our  investigations. 

Assenting,  as  I  do,  to  the  conclusions  of  such  distinguished  naturalists 
as  Wilson  and  Foster,  to  the  effect  that  we  are  justified  in  assuming  that 
the  crania  from  localities  so  far  asunder  as  Illinois,  Iowa,  Indiana,  Ohio 
and  Missouri,  present  a  "similarity  of  type  in  those  crania,  apart  from  the 
similarity  in  weapons  of  warfare,  pottery,  personal  ornaments  and  earth- 
works, which  would  indicate  a  homogeneous  people  distributed  over  a 
wide  area,"  yet,  to  present  representative  specimens  of  the  skulls  which 
have  been'  collected  from  the  mounds  which  are  scattered  over  such  an 
extended  territory,  along  with  the  necessary  descriptions,  measurements 
and  illustrations  as  would  be  requisite  for  scientific  accuracy  and  induc- 
tion, would  extend  our  investigations  far  beyond  the  limits  of  the  pres- 
ent essay.  We  must  content  ourselves,  therefore,  with  such  illustrations 
and  considerations  as  are  more  general  in  their  character,  but  sufficiently 
specific  and  particular,  it  is  hoped,  to  make  them  of  some  scientific  value, 
at  least  in  clearing  the  way  somewhat  for  other  observers. 

For  convenience  in  the  study  of  ethnic  relationships,  craniologists  have 
recognized  three  distinct  classes  of  skulls  under  which  all  are  grouped. 
The  principle  upon  which  this  classification  is  made,  is  based  simply  upon 
the  relation  of  the  breadth  to  the  length  of  the  skull.  Taking  the  length 
of  a  skull  to  be  one  hundred,  when  the  breadth  is  less  than  seventy- 
three  to  one  hundred,  it  is  called  Dolicocephalic,  or  long  head:  those 
whose  proportions  are  from  seventy-four  or  seventy-nine  to  one  hundred 
are  termed  Orthocephalic,  or  regularly  formed  ;  those  skulls  whose  pro- 
portions are  from  eighty  to  eighty-nine  to  one  hundred  are  called  Brachy- 
cephalic,  or  short  heads.  It  may  be  remarked  with  reference  to  the 
classification  of  skulls,  that  some  have  been  found  in  Europe  presenting 
such  phenomenal  characteristics  that  another  class  has  been  proposed, 
called  Seephocephalic.  But,  as  it  is  quite  likely  that  the  peculiar  elonga- 
tion of  those  classed  under  this  head  may  have  been  produced  by  artificial 
means,  they  need  not  be  dwelt  upon  here.  Concerning  the  skull  known 
as  the  "Scioto  Mound  Skull",  which  was  taken  by  Squire  and  Davis  from 


CRANIA.  101 

a  mound  in  the  Scioto  valley,  and  figured  and  described  in  their  great 
work,  Dr.  Morton  says  it  is  "perhaps  the  most  admirably  formed  head 
of  the  American  race  hitherto  discovered.  It  possesses  the  national 
characteristics  in  perfection,  as  seen  in  the  elevated  vertex,  flattened 
occiput,  great  interparietal  diameter,  ponderous  bony  structure,  salient 
nose,  large  jaws  and  broad  face."  This  skull  was  regarded  by  the 
discoverers  as  the  one  of  all  others  concerning  which  there  could  be  no 
doubt  that  it  belonged  to  the  race  of  the  mounds  ;  and  other  eminent 
writers  have  accepted  the  opinion  of  the  finders.  Dr.  Foster,  however, 
(because  of  its  decided  Brachycephalic  form  doubtless),  says  that  "any 
comparative  anatomist  will  instantly  recognize  it  as  of  the  Indian  type."1 

As  far  as  my  own  observation  goes,  I  am  persuaded  that  those  ethnol- 
ogists who  have  taken  one  specific  form  as  the  type,  rejecting  all  others 
which  do  not  closely  resemble  it,  do  not  make  sufficient  account  of  the 
wide  extent  of  territory  in  which  they  are  found,  the  length  of  time 
which  must  have  passed  while  the  civilization  of  the  race  was  being 
developed,  nor  the  influence  of  local  habits  and  customs  in  modifying  the 
estoolo^ical  conditions  of  the  individual  members  of  communities  isolated 
as  they  must  have  been  for  a  long  series  of  years  ;  nor  of  the  recognized 
fact  that  "individual  variations  in  the  crania  of  a  particular  race  are  so 
great  as  to  present  intermediate  gradations  all  the  way  from  one  extreme 
to  another,  thus  forming  a  connecting  link  between  widely  separated 
races."  The  burial  mounds  of  Missouri  present  well-defined  Brachy- 
cephalic specimens,  often  flattened  in  the  occipital  region,  as  well  as  the 
longer  and  more  symmetrical  Orthocephalic  type  ;  and  sometimes  both 
are  observed  in  one  mound.  The  assumption,  therefore,  that  the  one  or 
the  other  is  the  exclusive  typal  form,  cannot  be  maintained  ;  nor  on  such 
a  narrow  basis  can  these  seemingly  wide  divergencies  in  the  shape  of 
individual  skulls  be  satisfactorily  explained.  AVe  may  safely  conclude, 
therefore,  that  the  idea  that  one  uniform  constant  type  prevailed  during 
the  centuries  of  the  occupancy  of  the  Mound-builders  of  the  vast  con- 
tinent of  America,  through  all  its  fixed  communities,  is  a  sweeping 
assumption  which  finds  no  support  from  the  history  of  other  races  of 
men,  nor  from  the  facts  which  the  mounds  disclose. 

The  influence  of  local  customs,  as  exhibited  in  the  different  manner  of 
flattening   the    skull   by  related  tribes  of   Indians,  is    a  case  in  point. 

r 
i  It  should  be  remembered  that  very  many  other  considerations  enter  into  the  account 
in  determining  the  class  to  which    certain  skulls  belong  besides  the  proportion  of 
breadth  to  length.    This,  however,  is  the  first  and  most  important,  and  the  one  which  I 
shall  chiefly  consider 


102 


ARCHAEOLOGY. 


Included  under  the  general  name  of  Flatheads,  are  at  least  twenty 
different  tribes.  With  some,  the  head  of  the  child  is  strapped  to  the 
cradle-board  until  its  transverse  diameter  is  enormous,  when  seen  in 
front  or  from  behind,  while  the  longitudinal  diameter  is  only  about  half 
as  great.  In  others  the  skull  is  shaped  by  winding  a  deer-skin  cord 
around  the  head,  beginning  just  above  the  ears  and  winding  in  such  a 
manner  that  a  uniform  pressure  is  brought  to  bear  upon  the  skull,  forcing 
it  upward  until  it  assumes  a  tapering  form,  almost  terminating  in  a  point 
at  the  vertex.  In  others  again,  the  pressure  is  so  applied  as  to  press 
back  the  frontal  bone  to  such  a  degree  that  the  forehead  is  almost  entirely 
obliterated.  Concerning  the  origin  of  these  diverse  customs  among 
affiliated   tribes    we  need    not  stop  to  enquire.     They  are  sufficient  to 

prove  that  peculiar  practices,  affecting 
the  shape  of  the  skull  in  contrary  ways, 
do  originate  in  communities  dwelling 
near  each  other,  and  are  persisted  in, 
notwithstanding  their  constant  famili- 
arity  with  the  different  customs  of  their 
neighbors.  It  is  not  surprising  then, 
we  repeat,  that  mounds  a  thousand 
miles  from  each  other,  or  the  same 
mounds  even,  should  disclose  cranial 
forms  presenting  distinct  and  contrast- 
ing characteristics. 

The  skull  represented  in  Fig.  1,  it 
will  be  observed,  is  very  globular  in 
shape,  with  transverse  diameter  almost  equalling  the  longitudinal,  as 
will  be  apparent  by  comparing  the  front  with  the  side  view  which  is 
represented  in  the  next  engraving,  Fig.  2.  From  the  supercilliary 
ridges,  which  are  prominent,  the  line  of  the  forehead  ascends  almost 
vertically  to  a  great  height,  and  then  sweeps  in  a  well-rounded  curve  to 
the  apex,  from  whence  it  suddenly  slopes  off  in  an  almost  straight  line 
to  the  occipital  protuberance.  The  squamosal  suture  is  exceptionally 
straight.  The  chief  point  to  be  noticed  in  the  shape  of  this  skull,  is  the 
evidence  of  artificial  flattening;  seen  in  the  almost  straight  line  from  the 
occipital  protuberance  to  the  top  of  the  skull.  With  few  exceptions,  all 
the  crania  from  the  Missouri  mounds  which  I  have  seen  are  more  or  less 
flattened  in  the  occipital  regions.  Sometimes  the  pressure  seems  to  have 
been  applied  to  the  right,  or  to  the  left  of  the  occipital  protuberance, 
and  occasionally  directly  to  the  back  of  the  head,  and  so  low  down  that 


Fig.  I.     Front  View  of  Skull  from  Bayou  St.  John  Mound. 


CRAXIA. 


103 


the  line  of  the  skull  from  the  foramen  magnum  to  the  apex  of  the  lainb- 
doidal  suture  is  almost  vertical.  And  vet  I  cannot  believe  that  this 
artificial  conformation  was  designed.  The  absence  of  any  sort  of 
uniformity  in  the  extent  to  which  it  was  carried,  as  well  as  the  indis- 
criminate application  of  the  pressure  to  any  part  of  the  occipital  regions, 
would  snjrsrest  that  it  resulted  solely  from  the  method  of  treating  the 
infant  during  the  first  year  or  two  of  its  existence.  The  custom  of  the 
North  American  Indian  nomads,  of  strapping  the  infant  to  a  board  or 
basket,  for  convenience  in  carrying,  and  from  which  it  was  removed  but 
seldom  until  it  was  at  least  one  year  old,  need  hardly  be  mentioned. 
There  is  evidence  that  certain  semi-civilized  nations  so  treated  their 
children  as  to  produce  an  abnormal  shape  of  their  skulls.  One  reference 
must  suffice  for  illustration.  Garcel- 
lasso  de  la  Vega *  in  speaking  of  the 
manner  in  which  the  Peruvian  in- 
fants were  reared,  tells  us  that  all 
classes, rich  and  poor,  "bred  up  their 
children  with  the  least  tenderness 
and  delicacy  that  was  possible  ;  for 
as  soon  as  the  infant  was  born  they 
washed  it  in  cold  water.  Their  arms 
they  kept  swathed  and  bound  down' 
for  three  months,  upon  supposition 
that  to  loose  them  sooner  would 
weaken  them  ;  they  kept  them  always 
in  their  cradle,  which  was  a  pitiful 
kind  of  a  frame,  set  on  four  legs,  one  of  which  was  shorter  than  the  rest, 
for  convenience  in  rocking ;  the  bed  was  made  of  a  sort  of  coarse  knit- 
ting which  was  something  more  soft  than  the  bare  boards,  and  with  a 
string  of  this  knitting  they  bound  up  the  child  on  one  side  and  the  other 
to  keep  it  from  falling  out.  When  they  gave  them  suck  they  never  took 
them  into  their  lap  or  arms,  for  if  they  had  used  them  in  that  man- 
ner, they  believed  they  would  never  leave  crying,  and  would  always 
expect  to  be  in  arms,  and  not  lie  quiet  in  their  cradles  ;  and,  therefore, 
the  mother  would  lean  over  the  child,  and  reach  it  the  breast,  which  they 
did  three  times  a  day,  that  is,  morning,  noon  and  night,  and  unless  it 
were  at  these  times,  they  never  gave  it  suck."  He  tells  us  in  the  previ- 
ous  chapter  that  they  were  not  weaned    until  they  were  two  years  of 


Fig.  2.     Side  View. 


Royal  Commentaries  of  Pern,  Cliap.  12. 


104 


MiCBJEOLOGY. 


age.  Some  of  the  Peruvian  skulls  present  a  flattened  occiput  so  similar 
to  those  of  the  mounds  that  it  is  highly  probable  this  formation  was 
produced  by  the  same  means,  that  is  by  fastening  the  infant  to  the  cradle 
either  upon  its  back,  or  with  the  head  turned  more  or  less  to  the  one  side 
or  the  other,  in  which  position  it  remained  until  the  head  became 
flattened  in  the  region  of  its  contact  with  the  hard  bed,  thereby  receiving 
a  form  which  it  ever  afterwards  retained. 

The  skull  represented  in  Fig.  3,  when  viewed  from  the  front,  shows 
much  the  same  globular  form  of  the  brain-case  as  the  preceding  ones 
(Figs.  1  and  2).  The  vertical  view,  however,  is  very  different.  The 
flattened  portion  is  more  lateral,  the  pressure  having  been  brought  to 
bear  upon  the  right  side  of  the  occiput. 


Fig.  3 

These  decidedly  Brachephalic  skulls  are  very  far  from  conforming  to 
the  Mound-builders'  type  for  which  Dr.  Foster  contends.  Those  rep- 
resented in  his  work,  taken  from  mounds  in  Illinois  and  Indiana,  and 
undoubtedly  authentic,  are  Orthocephalic  or  regularly  formed.  Nor  do 
they  present  this  abnormal  deformity  of  the  occiput  which  characterizes 
the  large  majority  of  those  from  Missouri.  I  regret  that  circumstances 
forbid  the  reproduction  here  of  the  many  cranial  forms  which  are  ne- 
cessary to  properly  illustrate  this  part  of  our  subject.  But  as  those 
figured  above,  according  to  the  Doctor's  views,  should  be  regarded  as 
belonging  to  the  Indian  type,  I  transcribe  what  he  says  concerning 
their  peculiarities  of  form:  "The  Indian  possesses  a  conformation  of 
skull  which  clearly  separates  him  from  the  pre-historic  Mound-builder, 


CRANIA. 


105 


and  such  a  conformation  must  give  rise  to  different  mental  traits.  His 
brain,  as  compared  with  the  European,  according  to  George  Combe, 
differs  widely  in  the  proportions  of  the  different  parts.  The  anterior 
lobe  is  small,  the  middle  lobe  is  large,  and  the  central  convolutions  on 
the  anterior  lobe  and  upper  surface  are  small.  The  brain-case  is  box- 
like, with  the  corners  rounded  off;  the  occiput  extends  up  vertically  ; 
the  frontal  ridge  is  prominent ;  the  cerebral  vault  is  pyramidal ;  the 
interparietal  diameter  is  great;  the  snpercilliary  ridges  and  zygomatic 
arches  sweep  out  beyond  the  general  line  of  the  skull ;  the  orbits  are 
quadrangular ;  the  forehead  is  low ;  the  cheek-bones  high  ;  and  the  jaws 
prognathous.  His  character,  since  first  known  to  the  white  man,  has 
been  signalized  by  treachery  and  cruelty."  "He  was  never  known  volun- 
tarily to  engage  in  an  enterprise  requiring  methodical  labor ;  he  dwells 
in  temporary  and  movable  habitations  ;  he  follows  the  game  in  their 
migrations  ;  he  imposes  the  drudgery  of  life  upon  his  squaw ;  he  takes 
no  heed  for  the  future.  To  suppose  that  such  a  race  threw  up  the  strong 
lines  of  circumvallation  and  the  symmetrical  mounds  which  crown  so 
many  of  our  river-terraces,  is  as  preposterous,  almost,  as  to  suppose  that 
they  built  the  pyramids  of  Egypt." 

In  the  examples  I  have  given,  many  of  the  above  traits  of  the  Indian 
skull  are  wanting.  The  anterior  lobe  is  not  small ;  the  brain-case  is  not 
box-like,  nor  is  the  cerebral  vault  pyramidal ;  the  forehead  cannot  be  said 
to  be  low,  nor  are  the  orbits  quadrangular,  or  the  jaws  prognathous. 
Still,  in  some  other  particulars  there  is  a  striking  conformity  to  the  Indian 
portraiture.  For  example,  the  snpercilliary  ridges  and  zygomatic  arches 
in  the  second  example  "sweep  out  beyond  the  general  line  of  the  skull." 
They  are  decidedly  of  the  short-head  type,  and  were  it  not  for  the  de- 
rangement of  the  general  outline  by  artificial  means  in  infancy  I  imagine 
they  would  correspond  in  a  striking  manner  to  the  Scioto  Mound  skull, 
which  Foster  believes  to  belong  to  the  red  race.  The  occipit.-il  and  lat- 
eral depression  shown  in  the  vertical  view,  Fig.  3,  is  by  no  means 
confined  to  the  skulls  of  the  Missouri  mounds,  but  is  found  in  Peru.  If 
the  reader  will  consult  Morton's  Crania  Americana,  Plates  B  and  C,  he 
will  find  skulls  with  the  identical  characteristics  of  the  one  at  Fig.  3. 
They  occur  in  the  mounds  of  the  upper  Mississippi  region,  and  in  Ten- 
nessee. In  Harper's  Magazine  of  December,  1876,  is  a  valuable  arch- 
aeological article  by  Dr.  Jones,  in  which  I  find  the  engraving  of  a  skull 
whose  resemblance  to  Fig.  3  is  so  striking  that  I  reproduce  them  both 
side  by  side.  The  thing  to  be  noticed  is  the  general  outline  in  which  the 
similar  depression  is  shown.     In  the  Tennessee    skull— assuming  that 


106 


ARCHEOLOGY. 


the  same  point  of  view  is  taken  in  both — the  zygomatic  arches  are 
scarcely  seen,  while  in  that  from  Missouri  they  bulge  out  far  beyond 
the  general  outline. 

While,  as  before  remarked,  the  majority  of  the  skulls  found  in  the 
Missouri  mounds  possess  the  characteristics  shown  in  the  examples  here 
riven  :  some  which  occur  more  rarely  are  so  strikingly  different  that  they 
can  not  by  any  reasonable  theory  be  classed  with  them.  While  exploring 
a  mound  in  southeast  Missouri,  before  referred  to  as  having  been  the 
burial-place  of  many  hundreds,  two  skeletons  were  found  lying  beside 
each  other,  so  decayed  that  the  bones  could  scarcely  be  handled  at  all 
without  crumbling  to  pieces.  The  skulls  were  entire  when  passed  up  to 
me  from  the  excavation.     They  were  so  peculiar  that  I  was  filled  with 


Skull  from  Mound  in  Tennessee. 


Fig.  4. 


Skull  from  Mound  in  Southeast  Missouri. 


astonishment  the  moment  I  saw  them.  One  crumbled  to  dust  in  a  few 
moments  after  its  exposure  to  the  air,  and  fell  from  my  hands,  along  with 
the  earth  with  which  it  was  filled,  like  all  others,  which  are — as  well  as 
bowls  and  small-necked  water-jugs — always  densely  packed  with  the  loam 
which  covers  them.  I  proceeded  to  a  more  careful  examination,  as  I 
suspected  an  intrusive  burial.  With  much  painstaking  I  was  able  to  pre- 
serve the  upper  portion  of  the  second  skull,  which  was  a  duplicate  of  the 
one  destroyed.  The  outline  of  this  fragment  is  well  represented  in  the 
engraving.  Both  skeletons  were  lying  upon  the  back,  with  the  head 
toward  the  center  of  the  mound,  with  the  usual  drinking  vessels  close  to 
the  head,  and  a  food-vessel  in  the  angle  of  the  folded  arm  upon  the 
breast.  It  will  be  seen  at  a  glance  that  the  forehead  is  annihilated  ;  the 
frontal  sinus  is  quite  prominent,  which,  along  with  the  almost  horizontal 


CRANIA. 


107 


Fig.  5. 


line  of  the  frontal  bone,  makes  tin's  part  of  the  skull  resemble  that  of  a 
beast  more  than  a  human  head  ;  and  yet  I  am  quite  sure  that  its  form 
was  perfectly  natural,  for  I  could  detect  no  indication  of  an  artificial  de- 
pression in  any  part  of  it.  The  frontal  bone  was  curved  backward,  on  each 
side  of  the  occiput,  and  from  the  foramen  magnum,  or  from  the  bottom  of 
the  brain-case  to  the  apex,  was  one  graceful  curve.  It  might  be  suggested 
— as  has  been  done  in  the  case  of  the  Neanderthal  skull — that  these  were 
the  skulls  of  idiots.  But  whoever  they  were,  they  were  buried  Avith 
tender  care,  and  in  the  belief 
that  they  would  enjoy  an- 
other life  beyond  the  grave 
in  companionship  with  the 
manv  hundreds  of  others 
who  were  provided  with  the 
necessary  food  and  drink  to 
sustain  them  during  their 
long  journey.  As  so  large 
a  portion  of  the  skull  is  wanting,  it  is  perhaps  useless  to  generalize  upon 
so  small  a  fragment.1  Still  I  can  but  record  my  own  strong  conviction 
that  we  have  here  no  idiotic  anomaly,  but  characteristic  examples  of  a 
race  of  men  entirely  distinct  from  those  who  piled  up  the  mounds  in 
southeast  Missouri.  Much  evidence  is  gathered  from  widely  separated 
localities  upon  the  American  continent,  which  suggests  more  than  the 
probability  that  it  was  once  inhabited  by  a  race  of  men  whose  origin 
must  ever  be  hid  in  the  night  of  oblivion,  and  the  date  of  whose  occu- 
pancy may  not  be  far  from  that  of  the  Paleolithic  races  of  Europe. 

The  same  configuration  has  been  found  in  the  bone  caves  of  Brazil, 
and  in  companionship  with  extinct  animals.  Dr.  Lund  thinks  they  were 
contemporaneous.  In  some  which  he  describes,  the  peculiarities  which 
characterize  them  are  "in  excessive  degree,  even  to  the  entire  disappearance 
of  the  forehead."  The  same  form  appears  in  the  sculptures  on  the  most 
ancient  monuments  of  Mexico,  as  also  in  the  bas-reliefs  of  Uxmal  and 
Copan,  in  Central  America.  "  Humboldt  and  Bonpland,"  says  Foster, 
"were  the  first  to  draw  attention  to  this  remarkable  configuration  of 
skull.  The  former,  as  far  back  as  1808,  thus  stated  :  "  This  extraordinary 
flatness  is  found  among  nations  to  whom  the  means  of  producing  arti- 
>  ficial  deformity  are  totally  unknown,  as  is  proved  by  the  crania  of  Mex- 


1  For  the  distinguishing  traits  of  idiotic  skulls,  consult  Humphrey's  Treatise  on  the 
Human  Skeleton,  p.  233. 


108  ARCHAEOLOGY. 

ican   Indians,    Peruvians,    and   Atures."     Pentland,    Cuvier,    Gall   and 
Tiedeman  believed  this  strange  cranial  form  to  be  congenital.     Rogers 
and  Tschudi  both  were  convinced  of  the  former  existence  of  an  Autoch- 
thonous race  in  Peru  with  this  peculiarity  of  skull,  and  "  state  that  it  is 
seen  in  the  foetus  of  Peruvian  mummies."     Dr.  Lapham  has  observed 
what  seems  to  be  the  same  type,  in  Wisconsin.     In  a  private  note  to  Dr. 
Foster  he  says,  concerning  two  skulls  found  at  Wauwatasa :  "The  pe- 
culiar characteristics  indicating  a  low  grade  of  humanity,  common  to 
Doth,  are  a  low  forehead,  prominent  superciliary  ridges,  the  zygomatic 
arches  swelling  out  beyond  the  walls  of  the  skull,  and  especially  the 
prominence  of  the  occipital  ridge.     The  anterior  portion  of  these  skulls, 
besides  being  low,  are  much  narrowed,  giving  the  outline,  as  seen  from 
above,  of  an  ovate  form.     It  seems  quite  probable  that  men  with  skulls 
of  this  low  o-rude  were  the  most  ancient  upon  this  continent,  that  they 
were  the  first  to  heap  up  those  curiously-shaped  mounds  of  earth  which 
now  so  much  puzzle  the  antiquary ;  that  they  were  gradually  superceded 
and  crowded  out  by  a  superior  race,  who,  adopting  many  of  their  cus- 
toms, continued  to  build  mounds  and  bury  their  dead  in  mounds  already 
built.     Hence  we  find  Mound-builders'  skulls  with  this  ancient  form, 
associated  with  others  of  more  modern  type.     The  discovery  of  these 
skulls,  with  characteristics  so  much  like  those  of  the  most  ancient  of  the 
pre-historic  types  of  Europe,  would  seem  to  indicate  that  if  America 
was  peopled  by  emigration  from  the  Old  World,  that  event  must  have 
taken  place  at  a  very  early  time — far  back  of  any  of  which  we  have  any 
record."     The  occurrence  of  skulls  with  this  unique  and  congenital  con- 
fio-uration,  in  both    continents  of  America,    from    Wisconsin   to  Peru, 
and  many  of  them  associated  with  those  ancient  structures  whose  authors 
are  unknown  to  history  or  tradition,  are  facts  not  to  be  overlooked  or 
lightlv  considered   in  tracing  the  ethnic  distinctions  of  the  pre-historic 
inhabitants    of  the,  so-called,  New   World.     They    are    certainly   very 
suggestive,  and  invite  the  serious  study  of  future  observers. 

There  are  certain  facts  which  have  been  noted  from  time  to  time, 
which  fit  into  none  of  the  popular  theories  concerning  the  state  of  the 
arts  of  the  Mound-builders.  It  has  been  stated,  and  often  repeated,  that 
they  had  no  knowledge  of  smelting  or  casting  metals,  yet  the  recent 
discoveries  in  Wisconsin  of  implements  of  copper  cast  in  molds— as  well 
as  the  molds  themselves,  of  various  patterns,  and  wrought  with  much  skill 

prove  that  the  age  of  metallurgical  arts  had  dawned  in  that  region  at 

least. 


CRANIA.  109 

And  again :  what  shall  be  said  concerning  the  traces  of  iron  imple- 
ments which  have  been  discovered  from  time  to  time  in  the  mounds,  but 
more  frequently  at  great  depths  below  the  surface  of  the  soil.  Though 
accounts  of  such  discoveries  are  generally  from  reliable  sources,  they 
have  latterly  received  no  attention,  and  always  have  been  considered  as 
so  much  perilous  ware  which  no  one  cared  to  handle.  The  peculiar 
ovate  form  of  skull  with  the  retreating  forehead,  as  has  just  been  shown, 
points  to  the  presence,  in  remote  times,  of  a  race  of  men  entirely  dif- 
ferent from  that  to  which  the  authors  of  many  of  the  earthworks  of  the 
Mississippi  valley  belonged.  This  form  has  been  traced  to  Mexico  and 
Peru.  When  the  Spanish  conquerors  pillaged  those  countries  and  laid 
waste  their  beautiful  cities,  they  observed  vast  structures  and  ancient 
temples  built  of  hewn  stone,  with  consummate  skill.  When  they  ques- 
tioned the  Aztec  and  Inca  races  concerning  their  origin  they  could  give 
no  answer  but  this  :  they  were  here  when  our  fathers  came  ;  they  belonged 
to  a  people  of  whose  history  we  know  nothing.  The  Incas  copied  these 
ancient  models  in  the  great  structures  which  they  erected.  But  with 
what  tools  did  they  perform  such  wonders — were  they  of  copper  only  ? 
So  we  are  told ;  or  copper  alloyed  with  tin.  It  is  said  they  had  some 
secret  method  of  making  it  hard  as  iron,  but  none  of  the  copper  tools 
which  have  been  found  confirm  the  statement.  Mountains  of  stone  were 
wrought  into  dwellings  and  temples  of  the  gods ;  huge  walls  were  cut 
from  the  solid  rocks  ;  the  mountains  themselves  divided  into  galleries 
and  fortifications  rising  one  above  the  other,  connected  here  and  there 
by  artificial  breastworks,  but  generally  cut  out  of  the  strata  of  the 
mountain  and  left  standing,  one  solid  mass  of  stone.  Common  dwell- 
ings built  of  enormous  slabs  of  stone  seven  feet  wide  and  twelve  feet 
long  are  met  with.  Porphyry,  basalt  and  marble  yielded  alike  to  their 
magic  touch,  like  clay  in  the  hands  of  the  potter.  Vitreous  obsidian 
was  utilized  by  the  excellence  of  their  tools  and  the  delicacy  of  their 
manipulation.  Plates  and  cylinders  of  exquisite  thinness  they  made  of 
this  fragile  substance  for  ornaments  for  their  women. 

The  dexterity  of  these  ancient  lapidaries  in  cutting  the  hardest  stone 
is  amazing.  And  it  is  difficult  to  conceive  how,  without  cutting  imple- 
ments equal,  at  least,  to  our  own  in  hardness,  such  delicate  and  such  stu- 
pendous works  could  have  been  executed.  And  to  the  question  whether 
they  possessed  a  knowledge  of  working  iron,  the  wise  man  will  hesitate 
Ions;  before  he  answers  in  the  negative.  It  should  be  remembered,  too, 
how  quickly — unless  under  most  favoring  conditions — iron  corrodes  to 
dust  and  leaves  scarcely  a  trace  behind.     The  piles  of  the  Swiss  lake- 


110  AECH^EOLOGY. 

dwellings,  the  cedar  posts  of  the  mounds,  may  endure  for  ages,  while 
iron — so  hard,  and  more  precious  than  gold  in  the  advancement  of  the 
world's  civilization, — speedily  melts  away  before  the  gentle  dews  and  air 
of  heaven. 

The  idea  that  there  once  existed  on  this  continent  a  race  .anterior  to, 
and  entirely  distinct  from,  that  which  immediately  preceded  the  red  men, 
is  no  new  and  fanciful  conjecture,  but  one  which  was  held  by  the  earliest 
and  most  cautious  observers  of  the  antiquities  of  America  ;  and  we  may 
yet  be  forced  to  adopt  their  conclusions,  not  only  upon  this  point,  but 
also  their  opinions  as  to  the  state  of  the  arts  in  those  remote  times. 

According  to  Morse,  the  geographer:  "In  digging  a  well  in  Cincin- 
nati, the  stump  of  a  tree  was  found  in  a  sound  state,  ninety  feet  below 
the  surface  ;  and  in  digging  another  well,  at  the  same  place,  another 
stump  was  found  at  ninety-four  feet  below  the  surface,  which  had  evident 
marks  of  the  axe ;  and  on  its  top  there  appeared  as  if  some  iron  tool 
had  been  consumed  by  rust." 

Says  Priest :  M  We  have  examined  the  blade  of  a  sword  found  in  Phil- 
adelphia, now  at  Peale's  Museum,  in  New  York,  which  was  taken  out 
of  the  ground  something  more  than  sixty  feet  below  the  surface.  The 
blade  is  about  twenty  inches  in  length,  is  sharp  on  one  edge,  with  a 
thick  back,  a  little  turned  up  at  the  point,  with  a  shank  drawn  out  three 
or  four  inches  long,  which  was  doubtless  inserted  in  the  handle,  and 
clinched  at  the  end." 

"Twelve  miles  west  of  Chillicothe,  on  Paint  Creek,  are  found  the 
remains  of  a  furnace,  ten  or  twelve  feet  square,  formed  of  rough  stones, 
surrounded  by  cinders,  among  trees  of  full  size.  There  are,  at  this 
place,  seven  wells  situated  within  the  compass  of  an  acre  of  land,  reg- 
ularly walled  up  with  hewn  stone,  but  are  now  nearly  filled  up  with  the 
accumulating  earth  of  ages.  Eight  miles  further  up  the  creek,  a  small 
bar  of  gold  was  taken  out  of  a  mound,  which  sold  in  Chillicothe  for 
twelve  dollars.  A  piece  of  cast  iron,  we  are  further  told,  was  taken 
from  a  circular  embankment  in  Circleville." 

From  the  distinguished  antiquary,  Mr.  Atwater,  who  was  present 
when  a  large  mound  near  Circleville  was  removed,  we  learn  that  in  addi- 
tion to  the  skeletons  it  contained,  along  Avith  stone  implements,  was 
found  "the  handle,  either  of  a  small  sword  or  large  knife,  made  of  elk's 
horn;  around  the  end,  where  the  blade  had  been  inserted,  was  a  ferrule 
of  silver,  which,  though  black,  was  not  much  injured  by  time;  though 
the  handle  showed  the  hole  where  the  blade  had  been  inserted,  yet  no 
iron  was  found,  but  an    oxide,  or  rust,  remained,  of  similar  shape    and 


CEAXIA.  1 11 

size."  With  another  skeleton,  in  the  same  mound,  was  found  a  large 
plate  of  mica,  three  feet  in  length  by  one  and  one-half  in  width,  and  one 
inch  and  a  half  in  thickness.  On  this  was  a  plate  of  iron  thoroughly 
oxydized,  which  crumbled  to  dust  when  disturbed  by  the  spade,  but 
resembled  a  plate  of  cast  iron.  This  was  doubtless  a  mirror.  Both 
bodies  had  been  burned,  and  mingled  with  the  bones  and  implements 
were  quantities  of  charcoal  and  ashes.  The  same  author  thinks  that 
some  of  the  supposed  iron  knives  which  have  been  discovered  in  the 
mounds  may  have  been  steel  instead.  The ''huge  iron  weapon  "  found 
in  the  hand  of  the  skeleton  in  the  Utah  mound  before  described,  which 
crumbled  to  dust  on  exposure  to  the  air,  will  be  remembered.  But  here 
I  must  desist  from  further  consideration  of  the  question — for  the  present 
at  least — as  to  the  extent  of  the  knowledge  and  uses  of  iron  among  the 
ancient  Americans,  as  I  am  not  aware  of  airy  relics  of  this  metal  having 
been  found  among  the  antiquities  of  Missouri,  save  those  made  of  native 
ore.  But,  as  similar  notices  of  its  occurrence  in  the  mounds  and  on 
ancient  levels,  far  below  the  present  surface  of  the  alluvial  plains,  are 
abundant  in  all  the  current  antiquarian  literature  of  the  last  half  century, 
I  felt  that  the  subject  was  too  important  to  be  passed  over  in  silence, 
especially  as  I  had  reason  to  suspect  that  those  remote  dwellers  upon 
this  continent,  whose  peculiar  form  of  skull  has  been  noticed  by  Hum- 
boldt, Foster,  Lapham  and  many  others,  and  lastly  by  myself  in  Missouri, 
were  not  unacquainted  with  the  uses  of  iron  and  other  metallurgical  arts. 
That  these  were  the  opinions  of  that  distinguished  scholar  and  states- 
man, William  Wirt,  the  following  quotation  from  his  writings  will  show. 
After  speaking  of  the  various  relics  of  vanished  races,  among  which  he 
mentions  "iron  and  copper,  buried  in  a  soil  which  must  have  been  undis- 
turbed for  ages,"  he  proceeds  to  say  :  "The  mighty  remains  of  the  past, 
to  which  we  have  alluded,  indicate  the  existence  of  three  distinct  races 
of  men,  previous  to  the  arrival  of  the  existing  white  settlers.  The 
monuments  of  the  first  or  primitive  race,  are  regular  stone  walls,  wells 
stoned  up,  brick  hearths  found  in  digging  the  Louisville  canal,  nineteen 
feet  below  the  surface,  with  the  coals  of  the  last  domestic  fire  upon  them, 
medals  of  copper  and  silver,  swords  and  other  implements  of  iron.  Mr. 
Flint  assures  us  that  he  has  seen  these  strange  ancient  swords.  He  has 
also  examined  a  small  iron  shoe,  like  a  horse-shoe,  encrusted  with  the  rust 
of  ages,  and  found  far  below  the  soil,  and  the  copper  axe,  weighing  about 
two  pounds,  singularly  tempered  and  of  peculiar  construction."  The 
second  race,  he  thinks,  were  the  authors  of  the  mounds,  who,  in  time, 
were  succeeded  by  the  Indians. 


1 1 2  ARCHEOLOGY 

A  few  weeks  since  I  received,  in  a  private  letter  from  Prof.  Tice,  the 
distinguished  meteorologist,  an  interesting  account  of  the  discovery,  in 
one  of  the  interior  comities  in  Illinois,  of  the  corroded  remains  of  some 
sort  of  cutting  implement  of  iron  or  steel.  As  I  have  not  his  communi- 
cation at  hand  at  this  moment,  I  cannot  give  the  details  ;  but  as  I  recall 
the  statement,  it  was  found  several  feet  below  the  surface,  in  a  gravelly 
river  bank  which  had  been  washed  away  by  the  floods  and  thus  exposed, 
and  under  such  circumstances  as  to  convince  intelligent  observers  who 
saw  it,  and  the  bed  from  whence  it  was  taken,  that  it  was  of  great 
antiquity.  What  shall  we  say  to  these  numberless  and  constantly 
recurring  notices  of  the  discovery  of  traces  of  iron?  The  journey  of 
De  Soto  across  the  continent  has  been  made  to  do  good  service  in 
explaining  the  presence  in  the  mounds  of  metal  implements,  as  well  as 
the  immense  defensive  structures  in  some  of  the  Southern  States,  which 
were  thought  to  be  beyond  the  skill  of  the  ancient  inhabitants.  A  topo- 
graphical representation  of  all  of  the  supposed  routes  of  his  journeyings 
would  resemble  a  western  railway  chart.  Had  De  Soto  lived  till  now, 
and  traveled  incessantly,  like  the  Wandering  Jew,  he  could  not  have 
accomplished  all  that  has  been  placed  to  his  credit.  Again,  the  bold 
Norsemen,  under  Eric  the  Red,  and  other  adventurers  on  the  ocean, 
whose  ships,  by  adverse  winds  or  favoring  gales,  were  driven  to  these 
far  off  shores, — colonies  of  Welsh,  Malayans — and  the  lost  ten  tribes  of 
Israel — all  have  been  marshaled  by  different  authors  in  the  interest  of 
their  particular  theories,  and  made  to  do  duty  in  explaining  the  inexpli- 
cable problems  of  our  antiquities.  In  regard  to  the  question  thus  touched 
upon,  as  well  as  many  others  equally  perplexing,  is  it  not  better  to  sift 
and  garner  the  grains  of  truth  we  have,  and  with  childlike  receptivity 
wait  for  greater  light? 


CHAPTER  XII, 

Concluding  Observation's.— The  Origix  of  the  Pre-Historic  Races  of  America.— 
Theory  of  Spontaneous  Generation.— The  Law  Governing  their  Migrations.— 
Successive  Movements  of  the  Nahua  Race.— The  Aztecs  the  last  Colony  of 
that  People.— Opinions  of  Baron  Humboldt. — Our  own  Country  probably  the 
Original  Home  of  the  Aztec  Civilization.— The  Indian  Races  of  Asiatic  Ori- 
gin.—Facilities  of  Immigration  via.  Behring's  Straits.— A  Personal  Word.— Dry 
Bones  Clothed. 

A  proper  completion  of  our  investigations  demands  a  brief  notice  ot 
the  current  opinions  which  relate  to  the  origin,  migrations  and  the  ulti- 
mate fate  of  the  race  whose  relics  and  monuments  have  been  considered 
in  the  preceeding  pages.  By  whatever  theory  we  may  be  pleased  to 
adopt  as  to  the  manner  in  which  was  first  peopled,  we  are  carried  back 
irresistably  to  times  so  remote  that  we  rise  from  our  study  of  this  sub- 
ject with  the  conviction  that  the  origin  of  the  first  inhabitants  of 
this  continent  must  ever  remain  hidden  in  the  darkness  of  oblivion. 

None  of  the  many  theories,  some  of  which  seemed  quite  probable  at 
first  view,  have  withstood  the  test  of  later  investigations.  One  nation 
after  another — European  or  Asiatic — has  been  put  forward,  as  entitled  to 
the  honor  of  having  been  first  in  the  field  with  its  peopling  or  civilizing 
colonies;  prior  to  whose  coming,  it  was  assumed,  this  continent  must 
have  been  a  desolate  waste,  without  inhabitants,  or,  in  the  latter  case,  at 
best,  the  home  of  wild  and  barbarous  tribes.  Another  theory,  which  is 
maintained  by  a  few  distinguished  writters,  is  based  upon  the  hypothises 
of  spontaneous  generation  ;  the  natural  sequence  of  which  is  that  the  abo- 
riginal inhabitants  of  America  were  Autochthons  j1  or  in  other  words,  that 
man — in  common  with  the  plants  and  lower  orders  of  animals — made  his 
appearance  on  the  earth  spontaneously,  when,  in  the  fullness  of  time,  it 
had  reached  that  condition  which  presented  all  those  favoring  and  con- 
current circumstances  which  made  his  appearance  a  natural  necessity. 

The  spontaneous  generation  hypothesis  is  still  so  far  from  being  verified, 
that  the  question  of  an  autochthonous  population  need  not  be  discussed  ; 


1  Humboldt  suggestively  asks,  "  Did  the  nations  of  the  Mexican  race,  in  their  migra- 
tions to  the  south,  send  colonies  towards  the  east,  or  do  the  monuments  of  the  United 
States  pertain  to  the  Autochthone  nations?  Perhaps  we  must  admit  in  North  America, 
as  in  the  ancient  world,  the  simultaneous  existence  of  several  centers  of  civilization,  of 
which  the  mutual  relations  are  not  known  in  history."  Personal  Narrative,  Vol.  VI.,  p. 
322. 

S 


114  ARCHAEOLOGY. 

inasmuch,  also,  as  what  we  have  to  consider  farther,  relates  to  the  ancient 
people  of  Missouri ;  who,  whatever  may  have  been  their  origin,  were  so 
far  removed  in  time  from  the  parent  stock,  and  changed  in  their  physical 
and  social  condition  by  their  evident  subsequent  commingling  with  the 
Indian  tribes,  that  they  furnish  us  with  few,  if  any,  facts  which  can  be  re- 
lied on  as  sure  guides  in  conducting  us  to  the  origin  of  their  national  life. 
We  must  take  them,  therefore,  as  we  find  them,  and  in  the  light  of  such 
facts  as  we  have  been  able  to  gather,  and,  applying  also  the  mysterious, 
vet  well-established  law  which  seems  ever  to  have  controlled  the  migra- 
torv  movements  of  the  various  nations  of  both  hemispheres,  deduce  such 
conclusions  as  we  may  be  justified  in  doing  concerning  their  own  migra- 
tions and  their  ultimate  fate. 

The  student  of  ancient  history  will  observe  that  the  migrations  of  rude 
and  semi-civilized  nations  have  generally,  if  not  always,  been  from  north  to 
south.     The  exceptions  to  this,  which  are  exceedingly  rare  in  proportion 
to  the  vast  number  of  known  movements   of  tribes   and   peoples  in  this 
direction,  it  is  believed  may  readily  be  accounted  for  by  some  local  and 
temporary  cause — as  stress  of  war,  for  example — which  turned  them  for 
a  time  from  their  normal  course.     The  constancy  of  the  operation  of  this 
law — the  causes  of  which  are  yet  the  subject  of  much  learned  specula- 
tion—  I    shall    assume     without    stopping   to    illustrate    it   by   quoting 
the  numerous  examples  with  which  the  pages  of  history  abound,  further 
than  to  give  the  opinion   of  one  distinguished  naturalist  in  its  support. 
Says  Von  Hellwald,1  "If  we  seek,  however,  to   establish  for  historical 
events  a  basis  in  geographical  relations — that  is  to  say,   if  we  carefully 
compare  them  together,  analyzing  the  former  and  investigating  their  pos- 
sible   causes,   studying  the  latter  and   deducing  as  far  as  possible  the 
resulting  consequences — we  shall  find  that  certain  generally  valid  laws, 
which  resolve  in  the  simplest   manner  many  an  unexplained  riddle,  are 
evolved  from   such   a  study  through  the  remarkable  correspondence  of 
facts.     Thus,   in   reference  to  the   migrations  of  mankind,  it  seems   to 
result  from  the  geographical  structure  of  the  continent  that,  as  by  virtue  of 
an  historical   law  we   are  not  to  look  for  men  of  comprehensive    and 
deeply  penetrating  intellect  in  Lapland  or  Malta,  in  Bosnia  or  Asturias  ; 
so,  conformably  with  a  strict  geographical  law,  the  direction  of  the  migra- 
tory stream  icill  be  found  always  to  lie  in  the  axis  of  the  greatest  longitudi- 


1  The  American  Migration,  by  Frederic  Von  Hellwald— an  admirable  essay.    Some  of 
his  facts  and  dates  I  have  adopted. 
Smithsonian  Report,  1SG6. 


ORIGIN  OF  THE  PRE-IIISTORIC  RACES.  115 

nal  extension  of  the  continent.  In  fact,  no  example  from  history  informs 
us  that  the  Tchapogires,  Tunguses,  Jakoots  or  people  from  the  banks  of 
the  Amour,  have  ever  descended  into  the  Deccan  or  Malacca  ;  that  the 
Ethiopians  have  ever  migrated  into  Sennegambia,  or  the  Finns  into 
Greece.  As  a  new  proof  how  much  nations  and  men  depend  on  geo- 
graphical circumstances,  and  even  when  they  believe  themselves  guided 
by  their  own  will,  merely  obey  a  great  natural  law,  the  fact  is  of  much 
significance  that  the  American  tribes  form  no  exception  to  this  general 
rule  ;  for  here,  also,  the  procession  of  the  migratory  races  is  in  the  longer 
axis  of  the  continent,  namely,  from  north  to  south. 

"That  America,  as  well  as  Europe  and  Asia,  was  already  inhabited 
before  this  great  migration,  and  in  many  parts  possessed  of  an  ancient 
civilization,  admits  of  no  doubt.  Occasional  traditions  of  those  early 
periods  of  culture  have  penetrated  to  us,  and  I  cannot  forbear  soliciting 
the  attention  of  the  learned  world  to  this  legendary  cycle  of  America, 
which  is  certainly  worthy  in  many  respects  of  a  critical  scrutiny  ;  for  to 
judge  from  so  much  as  is  yet  known,  the  inquiry  cannot  but  yield  inter- 
esting and  valuable  disclosures  respecting  the  cosmogonic  views  of  the 
American  aborigines  and  the  general  tendencv  of  their  ideas ;  perhaps 
endow  even  the  historian  here  and  there  with  a  fact  of  value.  But  to 
determine,  from  our  present  knowledge  of  the  mystical  traditions  of 
these  races,  which  of  the  tribes  in  America  may  have  been  the  oldest, 
seems  to  me  as  impossible  as  superfluous. 

"Upon  this  soil  multitudes  of  nations  have  moved  and  have  sunk  into 
the  night  of  oblivion,  without  leaving  a  trace  of  their  existence  ;  without 
a  memorial,  through  which  we  mis'ht  have  at  least  learned  their  names. 
Those  nations  only,  which  b}'  tradition,  written  records,  monuments, 
or  whatever  other  means,  first  guaranteed  the  remembrance  of  their  own 
existence,  belong  to  the  domain  of  history  ;  and  history  which,  to  be  true, 
accepts  nothing  but  what  is  actually  known,  points  to  those  as  the  primi- 
tive races  which  first  transmitted  a  knowledge  of  themselves ;  time 
begins  for  us  when  the  chronolosry  of  such  nations  takes  its  rise.  But 
all  these  so-called  aboriginies  might  be  only  the  remainder  of  previously- 
existing  races,  of  whom,  again,  we  know  not  whether  they  were  indeed 
the  first  occupants  of  the  land.  In  truth  we  meet  in  America,  at  more 
than  one  point,  with  traces  of  a  rich  civilization,  proceeding  demonstra- 
tively from  much  earlier  epochs  than  the  tribal  migration  itself;  as,  for 
example,  in  upper  Peru,  the  gorgeous  structures  of  the  Aymaras,  near 
Tiahuanco,  on  the  beautiful  shores  of  Lake  Titicaca ;  the  mysterious 
monuments  of  Central  America,  between  Chiapas  and  Yucatan,  of  which 


1 1 6  ARCHAEOLOGY. 

the  buildings  of  Palenque  constitute  the  most  celebrated  representative  ; 
the  earth  and  stone  works  of  a  people  distinct  from  the  above,  on  the 
banks  of  the  Mississippi  and  the  Ohio." 

In  speaking  of  the  migratory  movements  of  the  American  tribes,  it 
must  be  remembered  that  several  distinct  expeditions  of  the  same  people, 
at  times  more  or  less  remote  from  each  other,  are  often  spoken  of  as  one 
migration  ;  for  example,  the  race  which  bore  the  name  of  Nahuatlacas, 
was  composed  of  seven  tribes ;  namely,  the  Xochimilcos,  Chalcas,  Te- 
panicas,  Tlahuicas,  Colhuas,  Tlaxcaltecas  and  Aztecs.  All  these  tribes 
spoke  the  same  language,  and,  issuing  from  the  same  region  far  to  the 
north,  appeared  in  Mexico  at  successive  periods,  following  each  other  in 
the  older  named.  The  Aztecs,  renowned  in  the  history  of  the  Conquest, 
were  the  last  to  arrive.  Some  time  prior  to  the  commencement  of  the 
Christian  era — many  think  not  less  than  a  thousand  years  must  be 
assumed — the  mysterious  Nahoas,  or  Nahuas,  appear  in  Mexico.  Con- 
cerning their  origin  little  is  known,  and  none  have  been  able  to  penetrate 
the  clouds  of  obscurity  which  envelop  their  history.  This  much,  however, 
is  established,  namely,  that  all  the  Toltec  and  the  later  Aztec,  or  more 
properly  Xahuatl  tribes,  were  only  branches  of  the  great  Nahua  family, 
and  all  spoke  dialects  of  this  ancestral  race.  This  is  a  most  important 
and  significant  fact,  as  affinities  of  Language  are  considered  among  the 
most  certain  guides  in  ethnological  investigations.     But  little  more  is 

©  Co 

known  concerning  the  original  Nahuas  than  to  suggest  the  probability 
that  they  were  the  authors  of  some  of  the  stone  structures  in  Northern 
Mexico,  and  the  builders  of  a  few,  and  those  the  most  ancient,  mounds 
of  the  Mississippi  Valley.  With  the  advent  of  the  Toltec  domination  in 
the  country  previously  occupied  by  their  Nahuatl1  ancestors,  the  thick 
darkness  begins  to  be  dissipated,  and  the  dawn  of  ancient  American 
history  is  ushered  in. 

The  learned  and  able  interpreter  of  the  monuments  and  hieroglyphic 
annals  of  ancient  Mexico,  the  Abbe  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg,  regards  955 
years  before  Christ  as  the  earliest  reliable  date  which  can  be  established 
in  the  Xahuatl  language.  Although  the  Toltec  tribes  did  not  make  their 
appearance  on  the  scene  simultaneously,  but  at  different  times,  and  pos- 
sibly by  different  routes,  as  was  the  case  with  the  Aztecs  who  succeeded 
them,  their  active  occupancy  began  in  the  seventh  century  of  our  era,  or, 
to  speak  more  accurately,  in  the  year  648.  Clavigero,  however,  who  is 
alone  in  his  opinion  among  early  writers,  fixes  the  date  at  596.     This 

1  Pronounced  "  Know-all";  and  according  to  de  Bourbourg,  it  has  the  same  meaning. 


ORIGIN  OF  THE  PEE -HISTORIC  RACES.  117 

people,  after  the  lapse  of  about  four  hundred  years,  having  been  almost 
destroyed  by  famine,  pestilence  and  civil  wars,  were  succeeded  by  a  more 
barbarous,  though  neighboring  tribe,  known  as  Chiehimecs,  who  also 
have  been  supposed  by  some  to  have  belonged  to  the  same  Nahua  family, 
but  whose  peculiar  language  is  now  considered  as  convincing  proof  that 
they  were  from  a  separate  and  distinct  stock,  although  they  had  been 
more  or  less  influenced  by  association  with  their  Toltec  neighbors,  and 
had  adopted  some  of  their  arts  and  customs.  Of  course  it  should  be 
remembered  that  the  large  territory  of  Mexico  was  occupied  conjointly  by 
many  other  pre-Toltee  tribes  besides  the  Nahuas,  but  whose  languages 
were  so  radically  different,  so  entirely  wanting  in  linguistic  affinities  with 
the  Nahuatl  tongues, — among  which  may  be  mentioned  the  Almecs  and 
the  Otomi,  whose  speech  was  monosyllabic, — that  they  must  be  regarded 
as  more  ancient  than  the  Nahuas  even.  But  the  reign  of  the  Chiehimecs 
was  short.  A  tribe  of  immigrants,  known  as  the  Acolhuas,  took  up  their 
residence  with  the  Chiehimecs,  and  the  union  resulted  in  the  kingdom  of 
Acolhuan.  This  kingdom  was  scarcely  established  when  the  great  and 
last  migrations  we  have  to  notice  took  place.  The  seven  Nahuatla- 
eas  tribes,  as  before  noticed,  arrived  upon  the  scene,  the  Aztecs  bringing 
up  the  rear,  after  a  longer  interval  than  the  others.  This  celebrated 
people,  who,  in  the  year  1090,  had  left  their  home  in  the  mysterious 
Aztlan,  after  various  wanderings  and  delays  in  their  southward  journey, 
finally  reached  the  table-lands  of  Mexico  somewhere  between  the  years 
1186  and  1194,  and  took  possession  of  the  cities  which  the  Chiehimecs 
in  turn  abandoned,  following  in  the  path  of  the  Toltecs,  who  had  fled 
from  these  same  seats  less  than  two  hundred  years  before.  Adopting 
and  improving  upon  the  civilization  of  their  predecessors,  the  Aztecs 
founded  that  kingdom  whose  magnificence  and  power  filled  the  Conquer- 
ors with  wonder.  They  displayed  a  bravery  and  heroic  devotion  in  the 
defense  of  their  rulers  and  their  native  land  which  awakens  our  liveliest 
sympathies,  and  the  admiration  of  the  civilized  world;  and  their  final 
and  pitiless  destruction  has  left  a  dark  stain  upon  the  character  of  their 
destroyers,  which  no  excuses  in  the  interests  of  religious  zeal  can 
diminish,  nor  the  glory  of  their  daring  deeds  efface  ! 

In  the  preceding  and  incomplete  outline  sketch  of  the  leading  branches 
of  the  Nahua  family,  with  some  account  of  their  migrations,  I  have  called 
attention  to  those  facts  only  which  seemed  necessary  to  a  more  explicit 
statement  of  what  has  been  incidentally  assumed  throughout  these 
investigations. 

From  my  point,  of  view  then,  no  theory  is  admissible  which  does  not 


118  ARCHEOLOGY. 

contemplate  the  migrations  of  the  various  tribes  which  appeared  at  dif- 
ferent times  upon  the  table  lands  of  Mexico,  during  a  period  of  two 
thousand  years  or  more,  as  the  movements  of  the  different  branches  of 
the  one  Nahua  race,  whose  ancient  seats  must  be  sought  for  in  the  great 
alluvial  plains  of  the  Mississippi  valley.  Their  precise  location  may 
never  be  discovered ;  it  is,  however,  quite  probable  that  the  unknown 
Aztlan,  the  Huehuetlapalan  of  the  Aztecs  (who,  as  has  been  shown, 
were  the  last  to  leave  their  primitive  home),  may  yet  be  identified.  At 
the  commencement  of  my  study  of  the  antiquities  of  America,  I  accepted 
without  question  the  views  of  distinguished  early  writers  upon  this 
subject,  which  I  have  since  found  no  reason  to  reject  during  all  my 
subsequent  inquiries.  And  had  I  at  any  time  been  disposed  to  embrace 
opposite  conclusions,  I  should  have  felt  great  diffidence  in  suggesting 
them,  which  to  me  would  savor  of  presumption,  thus  to  place  myself  in 
opposition  to  the  mature  convictions  of  the  great  men  who  have  devoted 
years  of  patient  labor  in  this  direction,  of  whose  names  I  need  men- 
tion but  one.  Among  the  learned  in  all  lands,  the  opinions  of  Humboldt, 
upon  any  subject  which  engaged  the  attention  of  his  powerful  intellect, 
command  the  most  respectful  consideration.  The  rare  opportunities 
which  he  enjoyed,  during  his  extended  travels  and  prolonged  stay  on  this 
continent,  at  a  period,  too,  when  many  of  the  antiquities  were  in  a  better 
state  of  preservation  and  therefore  much  more  intelligible  and  instructive 
than  now,  give  great  weight  to  his  conclusions  concerning  the  ancient 
races  of  America.  In  speaking  of  the  races  under  consideration,  he 
says:  "The  very  civilized  nations  of  New  Spain,  the  Toltecs,  the 
Chichimecs,  and  the  Aztecs,  pretended  to  have  issued  successively,  from 
the  sixth  to  the  twelfth  century,  from  three  neighboring  countries  situa- 
ted toward  the  north,  and  called  Huehuetlapalan  or  Tlepallan,  Ama- 
quemacan,  and  Aztlan  or  Teo-Alcolhuacan.  These,  nations  spoke  the 
same  language,  they  had  the  same  cosmogonic  fables,  the  same  propensity 
for  sacerdotal  congregations,  the  same  hieroglyphic  paintings,  the  same 
divisions  of  time,  the  same  taste  for  noting  and  registering  everything. 
The  names  given  by  them  to  the  towns  built  in  the  country  of  Anahuac 
were  those  of  the  towns  they  had  abandoned  in  their  ancient  country. 
The  civilization  on  the  Mexican  table-land  was  regarded  by  the  inhabit- 
ants themselves  as  the  copy  of  something  which  had  existed  elsewhere, 
as  the  reflection  of  the  primitive  civilization  of  Aztlan.  Where,  it  may 
be  asked,  must  be  placed  that  parent  land  of  the  colonies  of  Anahuac, 
that  officina  gentium,  which,  during  five  centuries,  sends  nations  toward 
the  south,  who  understand  each  other   without  difficulty,  and  recognize 


ORIGIN  OF  THE  PRE-HISTORIC  RACES.  1 1  0 

each  other  for  relations?  Asia,  north  of  Amour,  where  it  is  nearest 
America,  is  a  barbarous  country ;  and,  in  supposing  (which  is  geograph- 
ically possible)  a  migration  of  southern  Asiatics  by  Japan,  Tarakav 
(Tchoka),  the  Kurile  and  the  Aleutian  isles,  from  southwest  toward 
the  northeast  (from  40  to  55  deg.  of  latitude),  how  can  it  be  believed 
that  in  so  long  a  migration,  on  a  way  so  easily  intercepted,  the  remem- 
brance of  the  institutions  of  the  parent  country  could  have  been  pre- 
served with  so  much  force  and  clearness  !  The  cosmogonic  fables,  the 
pyramidal  constructions,  the  system  of  the  calendar,  the  animals  of  the 
tropics  found  in  the  catasterim  of  days,  the  convents  and  congregations  of 
priests,  the  taste  for  statistic  enumerations,  the  annals  of  the  empire  held 
in  the  most  scrupulous  order,  lead  us  toward  oriental  Asia ;  while  the 
lively  remembrances  of  which  we  have  just  spoken,  and  the  peculiar 
physiognomy  which  Mexican  civilization  presents  in  so  many  other 
respects,  seem  to  indicate  the  existence  of  an  empire  in  the  North  of 
America,  between  the  36th  and  42d  degree  of  latitude.  We  cannot  re- 
fleet  on  the  military  monuments  of  the  United  States  without  recollecting 
the  first  country  of  the  civilized  nations  of  Mexico."  On  a  preceding 
page  he  also  mentions  the  fact  that  "  the  country  between  the  33d  and 
41st  degrees  of  latitude,  parallel  to  the  mouth  of  the  Arkansas  and 
the  Missouri,  is  considered  by  the  Aztec  historians  as  the  ancient  dwel- 
ling of  the  civilized  nations  of  Anahuac."  The  views  here  expressed, 
and  which  all  succeeding  investigations  have  tended  to  verify,  carry  us 
back  to  very  remote  times,  far  beyond  any  authentic  history  or  tradition, 
wdien  America  was  peopled  by  rude  tribes  of  a  low  grade  of  humanity, 
but  which,  nevertheless,  possessing  within  themselves  the  germs  of  a 
civilization  which  slowly  through  the  ages  evolved  a  progressive 
national  life,  at  length  resulted  in  the  establishment  of  the  fixed  com- 
munities in  North  America,  whose  skillful  hubsandry,  arts,  commercial 
enterprise  and  original  and  complex  system  of  religion  we  have  already 
contemplated.  All  of  those,  however,  were  but  the  broad  beginning — 
the  prophecy  of  that  higher  development  which  found  its  fulfillment  in 
the  more  sumptuous  civilization  in  the  rich  valleys  of  Central  and  South 
America.  The  territory  occupied  by  the  Mound-builders  is  too  large, 
the  evidences  of  a  dense  population  throughout  its  length  and  breadth 
too  numerous,  to  permit  us  to  suppose  that  its  occupancy  was  of  short 
duration.  There  is  also  too  wide  a  difference  in  the  respective  ages  of 
many  of  the  mounds :  some  are  manifestly  hoary  with  age,  while  others 
are  of  recent  date. 

While  we  believe,  therefore,  that  a  period  of  many  centuries  must 


120  AUCILEOLOGY 


have  elapsed  during  the  extension  of  a  people  so  numerous  over  the  vast 
area  which  they  inhabited,  and  the  erection  of  so  many  structures  as  are 
still  to  be  seen,  it  is  equally  clear  from  my  stand-point  that  we  must  also 
believe  that  all  facts,  when  rightly  considered,  point  to  a  gradual  disap- 
pearance towards  the  south,  and  at  different  periods  of  time,  which  may 
be  found  to  correspond  to  the  known  dates  of  the  migrations  of  the  Aztec 
tribes.     As  these  occurred  at  times  more  or  less  remote  from  each  other, 
it  is  altogether  probable  that,   to   different   causes    miiht   the    separate 
migrations  be  ascribed.     Some  tribes,  as  the  ruins  of  their  military  forts 
and  encampments  show,  retreated  slowly  before  the  encroachments  of  an 
invading  force.     Other  sites  seem  to  have  been  abandoned  deliberately, 
without  any  attempt  at  defence  ;  or  perhaps  the  impulse  which  set  them 
in  motion  may  have  been  the    captivating   accounts  they  had  received 
of  the  glory  and  riches   of  the  distant  land  to  which  their  brethren  had 
departed  years  before.    While  long  lines  of  military  defence  may  be  traced 
here  and  there  across  the  continent  at  the  north,  and  along  the  eastern 
plains  of  the  valleys  of  the  Mississippi  and  Ohio,  very  few  have  been 
observed  upon  the  western  side  of  the  Mississippi,  at  least  in  Missouri, 
and  those  are  of  small   dimensions.     I  am  led  to  infer  that,  however 
sudden  may  have  been  their  abandonment,  it  was  voluntary,  and  that  the 
ancient  Missourians  were  the  last  to  leave  the  country.     While  it  may  be 
impossible  to   decide  whether  they  were  the  Aztecs  themselves,   or  a 
remnant  of  that  tribe  which  was  left  behind,  I  cannot  forbear  to  express 
my  own  inclination  to  the  latter  opinion  ;  in  which  case  they  may  have 
proceeded  no  further  than  the  regions  about  the  Gulf,  where  they  became 
amalgamated  with  the  Indians,  who  may  have   intercepted  them  in  the 
journey,  and  by  whom,  as  a  tribe,  they  were  exterminated.     That  some 
such  event  did  take  place,  as  before  stated,  many  facts  would  induce  us 
to  believe.     Many  of  their  customs  survived  them,  in  the  practices  of 
the  more  southern  tribes,  wheu  the  country  was  first  occupied  by  the 
Europeans,  which  point  strongly  in  this  direction.     Among  these  tribes  the 
Natehez  will  be  remembered,  whose  arts,  worship,  sacerdotal  system  and 
customs  were  very  similar,  and  in  many  respects  identical  with  those  of 
Mexico.     This  identity  of  customs,  worship,  etc.,  I  had  intended  to  discuss 
more  at  length,  and  also  present  the  factswhich  bear  upon  the  question,  but, 
as  I  have  already  transcended  my  limits,  I  must  desist.     It  seems  to  me 
to  be  established,  that  the  ancestors  of  the  Indian  tribes  came  to  America 
by  way  of  Behring's  Straits.     These  are  frozen  over  every  year  as  late  as 
April,  according  to  Professor  Henry,  who  further  states  that  "  intercourse 
at  present  is  constant,  bv  means  of  canoes,  in  summer  between  the  Asiatic 


ORIGIN  OF  THE  PRE-HISTORIC  RACES.  121 

and  American  sides.  As  another  fact  relating  to  the  same  question,  we 
may  state  that,  while  the  Asiatic  projection  near  Behring's  Straits  is 
almost  a  sterile,  rock}'  waste,  the  opposite  coast  presents  a  much  more 
inviting  appearance,  abounding  in  trees  and  shrubs.  Moreover,  the 
climate,  when  we  pass  southward  of  the  peninsula  of  Alaska,  is  of  a  genial 
character,  the  temperature  continuing  the  same  as  far  dbwn  as  Oregon. 
The  mildness  of  the  temperature,  and  the  descent  of  the  isothermal  line, 
or  that  of  equal  temperature,  along  the  coast,  are  due  to  a  great  current 
called  the  Gulf  Stream  of  the  Pacific,  which  carries  the  warm  water  of  the 
equator  along  the  eastern  coast  of  Asia,  thence  across  the  opposite  coast 
of  America,  and  along  the  latter  on  its  return  to  the  equator.  The 
action  of  this  current,  which  does  not  appear  to  have  been  considered  b\- 
the  ethnologist,  must  have  had  much  influence  in  inducing  and  deter- 
mining the  course  of  the  migration."  He  adds  "that  the  present 
inhabitants  of  the  countries  contiguous  to  Behring's  Straits  on  the  two 
sides,  in  manners,  customs,  and  physical  appearance,  are  almost  identical." 
It  is  believed  that  the  hypothesis  we  maintain,  which  holds  that  the 
southern  portions  of  this  continent  were  peopled  by  tribes  who  had  their 
origin  in  more  northern  regions,  and  who,  in  some  cases  at  least,  were 
driven  from  their  ancient  homes  by  mongrel  hordes  who  made  their 
appearance  by  way  of  Behring's  Straits,  is  the  only  one  which  harmonizes 
the  many  otherwise  inexplicable  facts  which  continually  confront  the 
student  of  the  antiquities  of  America.  No  other  theory  will  satisfactorily 
explain  the  presence  in  the  same  mounds  of  skulls  of  such  different  and 
contrasting  types,  and  which  are  so  frequently  met  with  in  the  tumuli 
of  Missouri. 

In  bringing  our  work  to  a  close,  I  beg  leave  to  say  that,  in  the  prepar- 
ation of  the  foregoing  chapters,  it  has  been  nw  aim  to  present  the  subjects 
treated  of  in  a  form  as  attractive  and  popular  as  I  was  capable  of,  and  in 
a  manner  in  keeping  with  the  historical  character  of  the  work  in  which 
they  appear.  If,  to  the  scientific  reader,  I  may  seem  at  times  to  have 
expressed  my  views  with  a  warmth  and  enthusiasm  not  always  appropri- 
ate to  scientific  inquiries,  my  desire  to  invest  with  all  possible  interest,  to 
the  general  reader,  a  subject  which  might  ordinarily  be  considered  dry  and 
unattractive,  must  be  my  apology.  Having  for  fifteen  years  devoted  all 
the  time  which  could  be  spared  from  the  labors  of  my  profession  to  archae- 
ological studies,  and  especially  the  antiquities  of  my  native  land,  the 
enthusiasm  which  I  felt  at  the  outset  has  been  intensified  rather  than  di- 
minished, at  every  step  of  the  journey.  Indeed,  the  results  which  have 
been  attained  already  are  of  such  absorbing  interest  as  to  arouse  the 


122  AKCKLEOLOGY. 

enthusiasm  of  every  student  of  these  antique  memorials ;  and  the  zeal  of 
the  antiquary  receives  a  fresh  impulse  from  time  to  time,  as  he  grapples 
with  those  questions  which  relate  to  the  origin  of  the  different  races  of 
men,  their  modes  of  development,  the  routes  of  their  migrations  and  the 
like  ;  as  also,  while  he  labors  to  construct  a  pre-historic  history  from  the 
ashes  of  forgotten  cities,  the  debris  of  former  habitations,  and  the 
mouldering  relics  which  ancient  tombs  disclose. 

It  is  related  in  sacred  story,  of  an  old  prophet,  that  he  was  set  down 
in  a  valley  of  dry  bones,  and  told  to  pass  by  them  round  about,  and 
behold  they  were  very  many,  and  very  dry.  But,  at  the  sound  of  his 
prophetic  voice,  there  was  a  noise  and  shaking  and  coming  together,  bone 
to  his  bone,  the  flesh  and  skin  covered  them  again,  and  there  stood  up 
an  exceeding  great  army.  So  the  scientist  to-day  passes  up  and  down 
the  valleys,  and  among  the  relics  and  bones  of  vanished  peoples,  and  as 
he  touches  them  with  the  magic  wand  of  scientific  induction,  these  ancient 
men  stand  up  on  their  feet,  revivified,  rehabilitated,  and  proclaim  with 
solemn  voice  the  story  of  their  nameless  tribe  or  race,  the  cotemporan- 
eous  animals,  and  the  physical  appearance  of  the  earth  during  those 
pre-historic  ages. 

The  Christian  scientist,  pursuing  his  investigations  regardless  of  all 
dogmatic  theories  concerning  divine  revelation,  and  bringing,  at  last,  all 
right  results  of  his  work  to  the  subjective  light  of  that  old  record  which 
thus  far  they  have  only  served  to  glorify,  discovers  now  and  then  the 
golden  key  by  which  the  sublime  and  occult  truths  condensed  in  its  sen- 
tentious statements  may  be  unlocked,  and  the  long  seons  understood, 
which  are  comprehended  in  the  evening  and  the  morning  of  the  creative 
days. 


I 


